NEED TO KNOW
Nia Long is bringing the legacy of Michael Jackson’s mother to the big screen.
Whenever she’s asked about playing Katherine Jackson in the upcoming biopic Michael, Long says, “I get so emotional.” Speaking to PEOPLE about being a newly named brand ambassador for Estée Lauder, the actress, 54, says the King of Pop’s mom inspired her.
“I know what it is to be a mother,” says Long, who is mom to sons Massai and Kez. “But I don’t know what it is to raise a superstar.”
What the Fatal Affair star does know, she says, is that Katherine’s “journey is rooted in grace and her spirit is strong and kind. Those are the things I think of when I think of Katherine Jackson. I haven’t had the opportunity to meet her, but I do hope that she enjoyed the film.”
BACKGRID
Katherine, 95, shares Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Brandon, Michael, Randy and Janet with her late husband Joe Jackson. The Antoine Fuqua-directed Michael will star Long and Colman Domingo as the Jackson family matriarch and patriarch. Starring as Michael, who died in 2009 at age 50, is his nephew Jaafar, Jermaine’s son.
Long reveals she has yet to catch the biopic, as it’s still in development. “We are all waiting to see the film,” she says of the filmmaking team.
Telling Katherine and her family’s story, Long adds, “was an opportunity of a lifetime — and not kind of a dream come true, a dream come true.”
She continues: “All of these wonderful things are happening at once, and … I haven’t wrapped my head around everything yet. I know I’ve worked really hard for everything, but it hasn’t landed yet. It still feels not real.”
That feeling, though, is “keeping me in the moment,” says Long. “It’s allowing me to enjoy it. It’s allowing me to be grateful and to live with a great deal of humility. I’m feeling really, really blessed right now.”
Long most recently appeared in 2023 film Missing and in Tyler, the Creator’s music video for “Darling, I.” In 2024, she described portraying Katherine in Michael as “a huge responsibility to represent a woman who is iconic, who has carried the weight of the world on her shoulders, who is still with us gracefully.”
Astrida Valigorsky/FilmMagic
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After Michael’s death, Katherine was granted custody of his three now-grown children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (known as Prince), Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince Michael Jackson II (previously known as Blanket, now Bigi).
Michael is due in theaters April 24.
