4 things the 'Michael' Jackson movie got right and wrong about the king of pop

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, April 30, 2026

1. Jackson’s childhood and relationship with his father

The relationship between Michael Jackson and his father, Joseph Jackson, is one of the film’s primary storylines. One scene that may be too intense for children shows Joseph Jackson beating a young Michael Jackson with a belt as the boy screams and cries, USA Today notes.

Another scene shows Joseph Jackson preparing to beat Michael Jackson again, but the camera cuts away before the audience sees it. For most of the film, the Grammy Award-winning artist is portrayed as afraid of his father and hesitant to stand up to him.

The film’s depiction of the singer’s childhood appears to align with how he later described it.

Michael Jackson reflected on his childhood and his relationship with his father during a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey. The artist, who died in 2009 at 50, said he always had to work as a child.

"I remember going to the recording studio, and there was a park across the street, and I'd see all the children playing, and I would cry. It would make me sad that I would have to go to work instead," he said.

"People wonder why I always have children around. It's because I find the thing that I never had through them. Disneyland, amusement parks, arcade games — I adore all that stuff because when I was little, it was always work, work, work."

Michael Jackson also told Winfrey that his father beat him as a child and that he was afraid of him.

"I don't know if I was his golden child or whatever it was. Some may call it a strict disciplinarian or whatever, but he was very strict. He was very hard. Just a look would scare you," he said. "There [have] been times when he'd come to see me, and I would get sick. I'd start to regurgitate."

In a 2003 interview for the BBC documentary “Louis, Martin & Michael,” Joseph Jackson told journalist Louis Theroux that he never beat Michael Jackson but admitted he whipped him with a switch and a belt.

“I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick,” the father said.