'This Is' The One

After a long night watching his uber-popular sensation, the documentary “Michael Jackson's This Is It,” at the Nokia Center in Los Angeles, and spending a quiet evening with his family, toasting the legacy of Michael Jackson, Kenny Ortega admits he’s tired.

“I had more sleep last night than I’ve had in a long time, but it’s almost worked against me!” The director cheerfully acknowledges.

Nevertheless, the warm, quick to smile and clear admirer of all things MJ director, took the time to sit down to discuss “This Is It” -- a movie that has exceeded his expectations.  It's a massive hit, fans adore it and viewers are calling for more screen time.

If you love Michael, "This Is It" is the one.

With that, here are Kenny’s thoughts on Michael, the movie and the man. Very touching stuff. Especially when thinking about the future that could have been...

On making a film about Michael’s rehearsals:

Ortega: “First of all, there wasn’t an 'a ha!' moment.  In fact, I was like a wreck. My first reaction was ‘I don’t want to do this’ and I really am serious about that. And all I did was promise to come and look at the footage to offer an opinion as to whether or not there was enough information -- if there could be a film. And as I started to look at the footage, I became haunted and I thought, 'How could I let anyone else touch this?' This is like the last documentation of Michael Jackson and it’s sacred, and we’re doing it together and who else knows. It was just like this moment where we became overwhelmed and I thought, 'I have to do this.'”

The pressure due to MJ’s legacy:

Ortega:  “I felt this tremendous weight of responsibility. And it was scary. And I started thinking consequences [like] ‘what if I don’t do it right?’ And it was unbelievable. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t think. Thankfully the creative team that I worked with Michael slid over into the movie project with me; we had this enormous support from Sony, the best people to work with. And then it just became about bringing Michael into the situation with me. And keeping focused on the fans. The fans – they were the reason I could make this film. They had questions. They needed to know what Michael had planned for them; they were traveling from all over the globe. Some of them could barely afford it. You know, [some had even] suffered hardship to get to London to see him… I thought, ‘That’s enough.’ And it was hard sometimes. That’s why I call it a mosaic, because it was like a jigsaw puzzle sometimes, you know? Trying to find the pieces to put together to be able to tell the story. Because we had never had planned to make this a movie."

ON MJ’s unique communication:

Ortega:“He’s like haiku. He’s like poetry. It’s like all you have to do is just listen. And be ready. And when Michael talks: listen.  One line from Michael could fill in all the blanks. And he did that all the time. He was profound in that respect. He didn’t need to go on and on and on about an idea, he could just throw out something simple and it would inform you.  He was also very generous and allowed us all to have a voice, and especially me. From the very beginning, whenever we got together it’s like he would throw the clay in the middle of the table and he would say, ‘Put your hands in it with me right now. This is about us. Together we’re going to do this. This is a family.’ Michael was very collaborative. And very respectful of all the minds around him. He loved listening, he loved hearing what we had to offer him.”

MJ’s excitement about the upcoming show:

Ortega: “He was really excited about so much of the show. He was really excited about the three dimensional aspect that we were bringing to the concert with these four 3-D films that were going to be woven into the show. And ‘Thriller’ especially.  He was so excited about the anniversary of ‘Thriller,’ and the enormity of the success of ‘Thriller,’ that he was going to give the arena audience a 4-D experience! That’s what he referred to it as [laughs]. The world’s largest HD 3-D screen was going to have this incredible film footage on it. We were going to have a stage filled with effects and dance. And then, coming off the stage, was this kind of dry ice kind of moving into the arena, and then he had elements coming down the ceiling, down the aisles…and so in the midst of ‘Thriller’ you were going to get this experience that was happening above you, behind you, around you, in front of you and even behind what was in front of you. He said, “If the audience goes home at the end of this concert and they can go to sleep, we failed.” [Much laughter]. ‘They should stay awake, texting, emailing and talking about the show and after that!’"

MJ as a visual visionary:

Ortega:  “We shared a lot of the same enthusiasm. That’s where we were headed. Michael and I had been talking for a long while about filmmaking and what Michael’s intentions were, that after the 50 shows, we were going to do a film. And we were talking about doing "Legs Diamond" as a full-length motion picture musical. And we were also talking about doing ‘Thriller’ in 3-D as a full-length motion picture musical. We also talked about developing ideas for television. And we were talking about doing a contemporary ‘Oliver!’"

Michael? Retire?

Ortega: “Michael was not intending to retire. ‘This Is It’ was going to be 50 shows in London; he hoped to take it out to the rest of the world if he still had the energy and felt good about the show. He talked about Africa, he talked about India, and he talked about Japan. He wanted to bring his children to these beautiful cultures and to get back in front of the fans one more time before he took his final curtain call. Because he didn’t want to go back out there, unable to do it without the integrity [he strived for]. So he was like [actual words by Michael]: ‘This is the time. ‘This is it.’”