The reason Michael Jackson’s biopic is simply called ‘Michael’

“We all know Michael Jackson, but the human is in Michael,” Antoine Fuqua said, explaining the intentional choice behind the biopic’s title.

When you hear the name Michael Jackson, there are a plethora of words, songs, and memories that come to mind for any given person. However, what do you think of when you just hear Michael? 

That shift is exactly why director Antoine Fuqua and producer Graham King decided to name their upcoming biopic about the King of Pop, “Michael.” 

“This is what I love—when I talked to Graham about what we’re gonna call it, and he said ‘just Michael,’” Fuqua shared during a panel discussion in Berlin. “We all know Michael Jackson, but, like, the human is in Michael… that’s the human.” 

“The superhero, Michael, we know who that is, so we wanted to get you as close as you can to being at a Michael Jackson concert, but also getting to know him in a different way,” the director added. “As a human being and a movie we can do that because we can feel even closer, because now you feel like you have a sense of who he is.” 

Michael feels more like a love letter to the person behind the icon, and less like your traditional biopic. For those who grew up with his music as the soundtrack to their lives, it’s an emotionally resonant homecoming. For younger audiences just now discovering his genius, it’s a powerful introduction to the man behind the myth.

Peeling back the curtains and giving fans a glimpse into the star’s life behind the scenes is what makes the film work, according to Nia Long, who plays Katherine Jackson. And also, the perspective it’s told from.

“We’re telling the story through Michael’s eyes,” she said

“When I watched the film for the first time, I learned things about Michael that I didn’t know. I didn’t know that he meditated in practice manifestation, and he had a real sense of spirituality itself,” Long continued. “So I think for me, it’s the quiet moments that I identified with as a person, not even as an actor, but just as a human being. And it’s in those moments that we have self-discovery.” 

That word, “quiet,” kept surfacing throughout the “Bringing Michael to the Screen” panel in Berlin. For a man whose life was anything but, it turns out the still spaces in between are where his truest self lived.

“It was the quiet moments in between when you get to know who Michael was and see some of his insecurities,” Fuqua shared. 

Colman Domingo, who takes on the weighty role of Joseph Jackson, told theGrio he approached the patriarch by searching for what he called his “secret spaces of vulnerability.” And the entire cast seemed to share a similar level of commitment when discussing their roles in the film, from Long and Domingo to Keilyn Durrell Jones, who plays Jackson’s bodyguard, Bill Bray. 

“I think there was a huge spiritual presence on this film, and it felt right,” Long reflected. “And you don’t always have words to explain it, but when things start to just fall in place, magically, you know that you’re on the path to something special.”

And that something special lingers long after the credits roll, as viewers are reminded that behind one of the greatest entertainers the world has ever known was a man still figuring himself out, just like the rest of us.

As Long put it: “For a man who was such a huge star, the fandom, the accolades, he taught us to remember, to be quiet and to spend time with self, because that’s [what’s] most important, that’s actually when you can manifest any type of greatness you desire. And so his legacy is a reminder of that, that we are capable of doing whatever we want to do. You have to take the time, you have to have the patience, you have to take the quiet moments, but most importantly, the discipline.”