New Video of Jaafar on the ‘Michael’ Set During Rehearsals Revealed, and Fans Are Loving It

Musical biopics live and die by their concert sequences, and audiences have grown increasingly hard to fool when a film tries to recreate a legendary live show. Getting the choreography right is one thing, but capturing the electricity of an actual stadium crowd is an entirely different challenge.

That challenge sat at the center of ‘Michael,’ Antoine Fuqua’s sweeping look at the King of Pop’s rise from the Jackson 5 to global superstardom. Long before the film became a billion-dollar box office phenomenon, its production was already generating buzz for how convincingly Jaafar Jackson channeled his late uncle on stage.

A newly surfaced video is now giving fans another glimpse into that process, showing Jaafar rehearsing on the ‘Michael’ set for the film’s climactic ‘Bad’ performance. The clip captures him mid-rehearsal with a live band, working through the choreography that would eventually anchor one of the movie’s most pivotal sequences.

That sequence carries more weight than it might first appear. According to NME, director Fuqua chose to film Michael’s recreation of the ‘Bad’ tour at Wembley Stadium on the very first day of production, betting that Jaafar could build confidence early by tackling one of the trickiest performances right out of the gate.

The stakes of getting that scene right went beyond choreography. Speaking to CinemaBlend, Fuqua described what happened when Jaafar first stepped out in front of more than 400 extras and a full band for the concert scenes, saying the moment he walked out onto the stage, the crowd simply started screaming, and once the music kicked in it genuinely felt like the room was transported into a real Michael Jackson show.

Fuqua added that the reactions were not staged or cued, noting that even when cameras weren’t rolling, extras kept shouting for more and feeding off the energy Jaafar was generating on his own. The production reportedly had to bring in additional cameras just to capture spontaneous reactions happening throughout the crowd, since so much of what unfolded felt unplanned and real.

The ‘Bad’ performance carries extra significance within the film’s structure as well. According to Variety, editor John Ottman built the movie around bookending it with the ‘Bad’ concert, using it both as an early tease and as the emotional close of the story, a structural choice he compared to the “mini Live Aid” sequence that closed out ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’

That approach reportedly kept Ottman up at night during the edit, given how much the scene needed to double as both a spectacle and a character payoff, marking the moment Michael finally steps out from under his father’s control as a fully independent solo artist. Rehearsal footage like this new clip offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how much groundwork went into making that finale land.

Given how much attention Jaafar’s performance has already drawn since the film’s release, it is easy to see why clips like this one continue to circulate widely among fans revisiting the production’s biggest moments. The rehearsal footage adds another layer to a performance that has already reshaped what people expect from a modern music biopic.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!