Larenz Tate Shuts Down Every Artist Being Compared to Michael Jackson: “There’s Only One and There Will Only Ever Be One”

It’s not even worth arguing whether a contemporary artist could achieve a similar level of popularity as Michael Jackson, since there isn’t any comparison to make in Larenz Tate’s mind.

“There’s only one Michael Jackson, and there will only ever be one Michael Jackson,” Tate stated in an interview. “The greatest entertainer of all time, in my opinion.”

The actor, playing the legendary Motown Records founder Berry Gordy in the upcoming Michael Jackson movie, commented on the film crossing the $200 million box-office threshold, emphasizing that this was not the goal at the outset of the project.

“We did this movie for people to see and celebrate Michael’s life,” Tate explained. “His legacy, his artistry, seeing him go from a child to an adult and literally becoming the greatest entertainer of all time. That was really our whole focus.”

One of the best ways to show the star’s massive reach is through Tate’s impressive statistics. At the height of his success, Jackson, whose popularity reached almost 4.5 billion of Earth’s 5 billion residents, was adored all around the globe without the help of social media.

“He transcended culture, color, gender, age,” Tate explained. “It did not matter if you were a baby listening to Michael Jackson in a crib or you were 100 years old. You knew who Michael Jackson was.”

However, according to Tate, this level of stardom is hard for modern people to understand, who are already used to achieving global popularity just by posting online.

“There are people who are incredibly huge and popular now just off the internet, they don’t sing, they don’t dance,” the actor stated. “Michael didn’t have any of that, but was still able to transcend all of it and connect.”

As to the preparations to portray one of the most legendary American music industry executives and the head of Motown Records, Tate admitted that he could not meet Gordy, who recently celebrated his 95th birthday, since the shooting schedule was tight, and thus, he relied on studying the archive footage and Berry Gordy’s biography.

“At a time where most Black artists were either just in front of a microphone or writers, there were not many people who were music moguls who understood the business, who grew a business from the ground up.” That was something I had always heard of and was very inspired by.

Finally, Tate admitted that the Michael film shares the same spirit of unification with the legendary entertainer.

“This is a film that put the fun back into going to the movie theaters,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t matter how young you are, you’re going to come in and experience a roller coaster and a ride. Almost like how people experience a concert, but you’re able to see a real story.”