Michael Jackson Remembered

Gratitude to mj-777.com for my discovery of photo

“I met Michael on the first day of rehearsal, and I was stunned — even though, obviously, I knew his image very well — at how incredibly sweet and how modest and how innocent he was. And fragile too. In person you felt he was almost breakable. But then this thing happened when he would start to work: your heart would beat faster and the hair on your arms and the back of your neck would stick up as he literally took your breath away. I think he was the most electrifying performer I’ve ever seen.

I think it was very hard for Michael to express anger. He was, I have to say, one of the most polite people I have ever met in my life. I never heard Michael say a swear word, even when he was upset. He had the most beautiful manners. And I think music was really the only way in which his passion could come through unguarded. It was immense. He was on fire as a performer — I’ve never seen a talent like it. I think, actually, there was a lot of the otherworldly in Michael. He had this talent that I’ve never encountered before, and I’ve seen a lot of extraordinary people perform. He was, I think, very misunderstood. I never believed any of the allegations or insinuations against him. We had lunch together about a month ago, and he talked about his ordeal. He felt like he had really been put through the ringer. He said they wanted blood. I felt so bad for him, and I felt that he was really broken-hearted from what had been done. He was a meteor: his flame burned incredibly bright, and not for long but mightily.” ~Anjelica Huston

Actress Anjelica Huston met Michael Jackson working on the set of Captain EO, a sci-fi action, 3D musical short movie that debuted at the height of Michael’s fame in 1986 at Disney theme parks.  The movie is a mini-StarWars starring Michael Jackson as Captain EO, the hero.  Ms. Huston played a wicked, alien witch Queen called the evil Supreme Leader.

Captain EO was produced by George Lucas, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and ran as an attraction at Disneyland until 1997.  The 17-minute film cost a record $17 million in 1986, a cost of about one million dollars per minute of film. This was, minute for minute, the most expensive motion picture of all time.  If you adjust that number for inflation, it rises to almost $35 million.  The action on the screen was recreated for the live audience using lasers, laser impacts, smoke effects, and starfields that filled the theater.

As of February 2010, Captain EO has returned to Anaheim Disneyland’s Tomorrowland Theater after having been removed for many years, though fans had been petitioning the company to show the film again long before Michael’s death.

BEHIND THE SCENES: Original 1986 rehearsals and interviews with creators and stars of Captain EO ~ George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 11:07 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.