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"Billie Jean" Music Video / Short Film
Date confirmed as one of the two shooting days from a clapper in the behind the scenes footage
Michael Jackson, Moonwalk, autobiography
For the first video, "Billie Jean," I interviewed several directors, looking for someone who seemed really unique. Most of them didn't present me with anything that was truly innovative. At the same time I was trying to think bigger, the record company was giving me a problem on the budget. So I ended up paying for "Beat It" and "Thriller" because I didn't want to argue with anybody about money. I own both of those films myself as a result.
"Billie Jean" was done with CBS's money - about $250,000. At the time that was a lot of money for a video, but it really pleased me that they believed in me that much. Steve Baron, who directed "Billie Jean," had very imaginative ideas, although he didn't agree at first that there should be dancing in it. I felt that people wanted to see dancing. It was great to dance for the video. That freeze-frame where I go on my toes was spontaneous; so were many of the other moves.
1999 MTV interview
It's kind of surreal and it's different. I didn't come up with that concept. It was - I think a British fellow - Steve Barron - and I thought he had wonderful ideas but I let him go with it. The only part I wrote in the piece was - I said: "I just want a section." I said: "Give me a section here I could dance on." 'Cause he said no dancing in the whole piece - so the whole section where you see this long street and this billboard of these two girls, one of them is Billie Jean and I'm dancing - that's the only part I contributed.
Steve Barron, director of the music video, “The Daily Telegraph” (December 11, 2014) (archived)
THE BRIEF - 'Michael Jackson's manager said that Michael wanted the video to be magical, that he'd [Michael] seen “Don’t You Want Me”, and he liked the cinematic look and that whole vibe. Michael wanted this to be a piece of a film, as opposed to a music video with a story.'
THE BUDGET - '$50,000. It was double the budget that I’d ever been asked to work with before. To put that in perspective, though, when Beat It was shot five weeks later, the budget was $300,000. And when they shot Thriller, it was $2 million. So, in the space of three months, the Billie Jean budget had become minute.'
THE INSPIRATION - 'I’d come up with the idea [for Billie Jean] based on an idea that I’d had for a previous video for Joan Armatrading: the Midas Touch thing. So the plan was that everywhere Michael went, everything would glow and turn to gold in the light. I wrote the concept down in a fax and we faxed Michael this page and a half of content and they said, ‘Michael really likes it, he really wants it to feel like a Peter Pan thing’. So, it was a case of, ‘yes, you’re on, come and do it, we like the concept.''
THE FILM - 'We used 16mm film. The reason we didn’t use 35mm – I’d just shot “Don’t You Want Me” on 35mm – is that there wasn’t enough in the budget.'
MEETING MICHAEL - 'He was sweet, super quiet, super soft, and really inquisitive about the plans for the video and then later, he wanted to know more about me.'
BEFORE THE SHOOT - 'I’d got a really good friend of mine to do the storyboards, and I sat down with Michael and showed him the frames and there were two blank frames in the chorus because the manager had said that he might be doing some dancing. He explained that Michael had been practising in front of the mirror.
I talked Michael through the idea of this private eye following him, which was loosely based on what he had told me was the basic concept for the song – something he’d read in a newspaper about a private detective.'
MICHAEL'S MOMENT OF GENIUS -'So, we ran through it with him, scene by scene. And when it came to the scene with the camera store, with the cameras all firing off, triggering his energy, triggering the Midas Touch again, Michael said he had this idea. ‘What about if one of the other stores in the street is a tailor shop with some mannequins in the window. When I go past it, before or after the camera store, how about the mannequins come to life, and they jump out behind me and they dance with me?’ I absolutely loved it, I thought it was an amazing concept, it enhanced everything. It was right on concept, right on story and just a genius idea.
After that meeting I got onto my producer and said, 'Michael has come up with a great idea. We need to change that store, the third one along or whatever, we need to get some mannequins in, get some dancers in, do rehearsals. We need to get a choreographer, a costume designer, and I need a couple of hours more to shoot this in a certain way, because this will be after the first dance.'
My producer worked out that this would cost $5,000 dollars more and CBS [Michael Jackson's record label] said no. They said, 'No, we’re not paying you a penny more, we’ve told you, you’ve got $50,000 dollars and that’s it.''
A LUCKY BREAK - 'I presumed someone would tell Michael that we couldn't afford his idea. I suppose half of me was hoping that he’d say, ‘I’ll pay for it’, but he didn’t. I got a phonecall on the Friday night – I was asleep, so it was one of those ‘where am I’ moments – and it was Michael on the phone, which was odd because he didn’t strike me as someone who’d make his own phone calls. And he was like, ‘Hey Steve, I’ve been thinking that we shouldn’t do the dancing in the video tomorrow’. I thought, 'I won’t blow it. He’s cancelled, so what’s the point in telling him about the budget when he’s realised that he doesn’t want to do it anyway?'
I understand why he didn’t do it, creatively, because I think at that point, he was thinking about Beat It and he was thinking about Thriller. To not do that good idea was disappointing, it’s like the missing scene that I’d have loved to have actually shot. I think it would have made the video better.'
THE DAY OF THE SHOOT - 'I was comfortable around set, it was just another shoot really until he started dancing.'
THE DANCE - 'I’d been told the day before that the paving stones wouldn’t all light up, that Michael couldn’t go wherever he wanted to go. There were 11 that lit up and they were all in a hopscotch pattern that they’d had to randomly decide overnight. I had to say, ‘Michael I’m sorry, but there’s this stone that lights up, and then these two do, and then these two, and then that one does.’
Having not seen any rehearsal or anything, I was guessing at what he was going to do. I think he had been practising some moves, but how he was going to string them together was going to be a mystery. He looked at it all very carefully and looked at what I’d talked him through and then I said, ‘Michael, shall we just do a few rehearsals,’ and he said, ‘can we just shoot it?’
As the chorus approached, he started moving his leg a little bit more and then the chorus hit and he sprung into this dance that was unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was just extraordinary, instinctive. He pulled it all together and turned it into what we saw. I heated up, I definitely heated up off the energy that he was giving off. The camera literally steamed up, the eyepiece steamed up, because of my heat from what I was seeing. He almost disappeared into a mist through the lens, which made it even more like a totally surreal moment.'
THE EDIT - 'I met Michael in Covent Garden, just by Longacre, and it was a post-production facility. I remember we were up most of the night doing it because it was a really quick turnaround, as usual. He happened to be in London so it was perfect timing. I remember him lying on the settee at the back, and at one point he looked at one of the screens and said, ‘I like that shot’, and in fact [he was looking at] a split screen. He thought the three splits were there for him to choose one… I didn’t say anything.'
A VIRAL VIDEO - 'All I remember was that, about two weeks later, I heard that MTV weren't going to play Billie Jean. They said it's not their audience. And then I heard, and I've heard many stories, that CBS phoned MTV absolutely furious: 'How can this massive hit pop record, with a massive video, and a great artist not be your audience. Who is your audience?'
They said they represented middle America. I don't think white or black was ever used. MTV were in their early stage. They didn't know who they were, didn't know what they'd become, and they certainly didn't know that Michael Jackson was going to become MTV. They were fighting against the thing that built them into the empire they became.'
“BBC News” (November 29, 2010) (archived)
He'd seen the “Don't You Want Me” video - that's why I got the job.
And he wanted something cinematic, as well, and his management said he was really into Peter Pan and could we do something that was a little magical?
I'd had an idea the previous year to do a Midas touch video with everything lighting up so the paving stone idea came from that.
The process was pretty straightforward really; we sent the idea to him and went out to LA and shot the video.
Before we shot it, he had a really nice idea for another little scene within it where mannequins come to life and dance behind him and I thought it was a great idea.
We made the video before the album, Thriller, had come out. It was like five weeks before Billie Jean was going to come out and they wouldn't pay for the extra tailor's dummies and the dancers so we had to can that idea.
Obviously, one month later he got anything he wanted for the rest of his life, but right then he wasn't quite in a position yet to demand what he wanted.
He was a really soft-spoken, sweet guy.
Obviously, he was very curious about everything, he wanted to know what was going on with this and that and how that worked.
Then suddenly… I was operating the camera for it as well and the moment he started to dance in that little chorus, it was just so dynamic, it was breathtaking.
I remember the camera steaming up because it was pretty stunning.
You knew that something special was going to arrive on the scene.
This was one of the first videos by a black artist on MTV.
“Promo” (July 2006) (archived)
"His manager said to me: 'make sure you find room for him to dance'. So I went through it with him, and said we had this chorus that we could do the dancing.
"When we came to do it, I said 'I'll show you all the paving stones that light up', and I led him along the street: This one, these two, that one...' So I said: 'shall we walk through it and rehearse', and he said: 'No, let's just do it.'
"I'm on camera tracking back as he came forward... and it was astounding. At no time before did you have any idea... nobody did, until that moment. And then when he came forward through that chorus, literally my eyepiece steamed up, and I'm thinking: 'fucking hell, this is amazing, he is incredible.' Dancing on his toes, the whole thing.
"We shot that first take, got to the end, and everyone - up in the gantries, eating their sandwiches, reading the paper, painters working on another set - just burst into applause.
"We all just knew we'd seen another era of superstar that the world was about to see. It was a major moment."
Rolling Stone: "Billie Jean" was already a Number One single on a Number One album before it even aired on MTV, but when it did, its cultural impact went beyond mere chart success. The clip broke the network's racially segregated rock-centric playlist and made Jackson its dominant star. (CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff has said he threatened to pull his label's videos if the network didn't put "Billie Jean" in rotation.) British New Wave video director Steve Barron tweaked a King Midas theme he was going to use for a Joan Armatrading clip. A pre-"Thriller" budget meant Barron couldn't afford a sidewalk that lit up when Jackson stepped on a square (an electrician had to do it by hand), but the shoot itself was still charged with energy. "When he came forward through that chorus, literally my eyepiece steamed up, and I'm thinking, 'Fucking hell, this is amazing. He is incredible,' " said Barron. "We shot that first take, got to the end, and everyone – up in the gantries, eating their sandwiches, reading the paper, painters working on another set – just burst into applause. We all just knew we'd seen another era of superstar."
MJJC Interview, February 2015, transcript
"Hi Jenn Niles and Michael Jackson Community, thank you for the questions. This is Steve Barron, I'm talking to you from London. And I am just going through the questions you sent- thank you very much for sending in Q&A questions. I hope to do the "A" part.
The first one is from Zakk, in England, interesting order of how they came in, really. But Zakk in England he says "First of all, thank you for this wonderful opportunity. Secondly, I would like to ask; How was Michael's attitude on set? We all know he was craving his perfected vision to become a reality, but was he also lenient with the crew? i.e did he have a sense of humor, when surrounded by the cameras? Also.. the significance of this short film transcends the meaning of the song, the artistry that you and Michael created together to pave a story of such a deep topic is wonderful, and I hope we see a high resolution scan in the future.. to really feel the magic that I'm sure was present on set each day!"
Thank you, Zakk. Yeah, the high resolution scan, I've still got a 1-inch of the master of Billie Jean in the closet somewhere. And one day it would be great to get that put onto digital and make sure it's as close to the first generation as possible. I mean, [inaudible] get back to the film, but you know we definitely get a good strong master of it if we do that one day.
But he was, Michael was exemplary on set. He was curious and charming and the best way to see that, that are some dailies from the shoot that we recently found, and you can see, you know as the day goes on in these dailies, that he got more and more comfortable with it. You can actually get those in Egg n Chips and Billies which is the title of the book. Eggnchipsandbilliejean.com is a website with about a minute of the dailies, and you get a sense of the atmosphere on the set outside of the actual video, around the video. But on the day, he was great. He asked me about my wife and baby we were about to have, and I can remember him talking about that- me being quite surprised he even knew about that. I think I told him we were going to get married in Oxfordshire, and he was just great. Really tolerant with our budget restrictions too. We only had $50,000, which sounds like a lot of money then to make a video, but compared with 'Beat It' which six weeks later was like $300,000 and 'Thriller' was a few million dollars, so we were the low-budget opener for the kind of videos for the Thriller album. It meant that the ambitions of how everything would light up around Michael had to be a bit home made. He was really understanding of that.
The next question is from "etoile37", it says: "Can you tell us a funny memory from the time you spent with Michael?"
Yeah- I mean, obviously it was a long time ago now, but I'm using a moment I can remember kind of amusing, was in the post-production. He came into the edit suite when we were cutting the video back in London after having filmed it in LA. I can remember, by then we had constructed most of the video- how it would look, which pieces we were going to use, and where they were going to be. And we had done the center section of the dancing piece, where there were the three split screens of Michael, and we were just getting those completely right and showed it to him. As he lookeed through it, Michael said "I prefer the one on the right", and he was talking about them as if the split screens had been put up as multiple choice for what we were going to choose as we went. He didn't realize that that was going to be the concept. It wasn't in story boards and things, so it was like something we were doing to jazz up that center section. So it was quite funny that, you know, it was just a misinterpretation of what this process and what was going on in this cutting room and whether we were just looking at different options. I quickly told him- he had a chuckle about it because I quickly told him, "Well, that's what we're going to do. That's how it's going to look. And you're going to get three of you on screen at the same time." So, that was a funny moment.
This one is from Jay Hoffman, in Cardiff, UK. Another UK! "Mr. Barron if Michael was still with us, what song from his catalogue would you like to create a short film for?"
After Billie Jean, Michael rang up a few years later- I can't remember how much later, but he asked me to make a video from old footage for 'Who's Loving You', which was footage of him when he was really young, when he was just a little kid, and the song is so charming and brilliant. And I think I would like to do another from the same time, perhaps, and if given a choice of any of them, I'd love... 'Got To Be There' is incredible. Just so evocative and beautiful and innocent and so emotional a song, I suppose that one if I had a choice of any to do, I'd love to do some sort of video for that- it would be amazing.
This is another one from Zakk from England. His question is, "Did Michael speak with you about his desire to perform this song [Billie Jean] on stage, and that when he was innovating the dance on the sidewalk he had future performances in mind?"
I didn't talk to him about any stage performance. We got into a discussion about choreography and he had a dance planned for the song, for Billie Jean, but not completely planned because he was still open to what was going to happen on the day, and luckily, because what really haoppened was, because of the limitations of the lighting up of the paving stones and everything, he was able to really bring in a choreography that was a merge between what he might have thought about before, planned, practiced a little bit, and what was going to be necessary to make it work with what was going on around him. You know, the way the stones were being lit up manually. With no real rehearsal he brought this sort of trepidation into the dance, which I thought was amazing. That was all really as he went along. I've got a feeling that the moonwalk and things, which he obviously had in mind, and I think was something that was around in South LA at the time, didn't really come up with the Billie Jean shoot itself, but obviously became big time into the stage performance.
Okay, Pat Minton from the USA has a question in a few parts. First of all, "How did you meet Michael?"
Well, I met him at his manager's office after he had seen the Human League on MTV- the "Don't You Want Me Baby" video that I had made. He then, through the management got in touch, and that's where I met him in LA.
Pat Minton also says, "How excited was Michael about doing the Billie Jean short film?"
He seemed very excited about the idea and the magic of filmmaking, and the potential of story-telling, and cinema generally. He just seemed fascinated by that. And we used a lot of the old cinema techniques in the video. He had asked for some "magic" and tried to bring in some of the magic of filmmaking as well. The 3M material that goes around the lamp post is actually something that I worked on when I was a camera assistant on the first Superman with Marlon Brando. He had worn an outfit that got lit up, really, through the camera, through a mirror through the camera. Not really by eye, but just through a light on the same access and things and just, that kind of magic of filmmaking he was really fascinated with. And us painting the set as well in front of the camera and so three feet in front of the camera we had the whole second story of the set, of the street, which was another filmmaking technique that he was really excited about.
And your other question, Pat Minton, was "What was it like working with Michael Jackson?"
That's a hard one. I mean, there was a special kind of feeling, a special aura around him, that came from a mix of things. He was ambitious, obviously, and curious, with little helpings of driven ambition and things. And when he danced, that was like another world. It was like entering another world. He was like... watching him and being that close to him when he did dance, I've never seen anything like it before. It was like being drawn into another universe, almost. That was really thrilling.
Okay, this is from "Snow White Loves Peter Pan", in Mexico (that's the name of the tag on it). And a few questions. One is "Did Michael contribute in any other way for the short film besides the dance sequences? Was it your idea [to have] Michael wearing that leather tuxedo?"
It wasn't my idea. We worked with a costume designer, Francine was her name I think. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was Francine. She helped gather ideas together that complimented the set design, you know the pink and the black look and was all really nicely coordinated. And also perhaps, I can't totally remember, Michael probably brought in one of his people, too. She [Francine] was more of the film-side styling/stylist for the story and things.
And it says here, the second question from Snow White Loves Peter Pan is "How did he influence you in your later work?"
Well, I think you take influences from everything in life, and there, I had the special chance to see a master at work; I had worked with a complete master mover and performer. I think the influence from being that close to a master can trickle onto and into everything you do. I don't know how else to put it.
This is from Mike Fann: "Hello, Mr. Barron. Do you remember Michael Jackson's reaction to the final version of the Billie Jean music video? Did you continue to listen to Michael's music after doing the video?"
Yeah, I remember he liked the look of the video. In fact, he asked how did we get that look, and he was referring to that grainy cinema look with the contrast, and I said we crushed the blacks. I said that, and then there was a silence, and it was kind of one of those awkward silences where I thought he might have took that the wrong way, and I didn't know how to get around that. That wasn't the technical term for it, but that is what we called it whenever we worked within the music video world- we called it "crushing the blacks". I can be taken completely the wrong way, obviously, and it was awkward in that moment. But yes, I watched in awe alongside everybody else when Thriller came out, you know, talking about listening to the music that followed and watching the videos that followed. I was totally blown away by Thriller along with the rest of the world.
This is from "Daryll748", Daz, from Brugges, in Belgium: "Dear Mr. Barron, what was the 'inspiration' behind the name of your book "Egg n Chips & Billie Jean"?"
The title comes from the point that I was trying to sort of get across which is, I felt a lot of my '80's journey was sort of contradictions that went from sublime to the ridiculous. I left school at 15- I hated it [school] to be honest. I hated the discipline and I questioned everything and I was just a bit lost and angry and stuff, and fell into the world of music videos that was just beginning. So much was timing and incredible luck. I used to go down the road and get egg and chips for 12p in one cafe and it was 13p in another cafe. Those were the days that you had to think about that 1p- 1 pence, 1 cent- whether you could afford it. So egg and ships was my favorite meal because it was the cheapeast thing on the menu. It was delicious! And it just went from there within a few years, to there I was on the set of Billie Jean, and directing Michael Jackson and that was such a contradiction that I wanted to sum up in the title of the book.
Question 2 from Daryll 748, Daz, from Brugges in Belgium, "Can you tell us a bit about the schedule, the hours, how a 'usual' shooting day was when you did "Billie Jean"?"
This was a long time ago so I've got to recall that. I think it was an 8am call, two days shooting. There was plenty of prep days, getting the set together, painting the set, getting it all prepared. The shooting day was probably 8am, and I don't think Michael was called until probably about 10 o'clock, and he'd then take a bit of time. By the time we got to shoot with him it was probably mid-day when we did the first shot. In that time, I would walk him around the set and say "Look, this is being built here, that's is being built there". I would show him how the second story of the street was going to be a particular method- a cinema method- of increasing/extending the set without having to build the whole thing up high. It was all done in glass in front of the camera. Then we would work late. Usually with music videos you'd work late. I think it was a two-day shoot, so we probably did until 8 or 9 the first day, and maybe even later the second day by the time we got everything. This was quite a long track, I think it was nearly 5 minutes, the actual video for Billie Jean, when you'd have a lot of them that are three/three-and-a-half minutes. It's a lot of screen time to gather in a short space of time so you have to move fast as a unit, far from what it would be on a movie or television show.
Daz's question number 3, from Brugges in Belgium: "You worked with other artists, did you do anything 'different' working with Michael Jackson?"
Yeah, I mean, the thing that was different working with Michael Jackson is this was somebody extraordinary. I've worked with David Bowie and Madonna and quite a lot of big names over the years. But there was something extra special, I'm sure you've heard this many times, but there was a certain aura about Michael that kind of was very seductive and he was obviously quite a young age just before Thriller came out, and there was a real sort of charm around him and absolute stunning brilliance came out when he performed and things. That was all very different [from] working with anybody else. I never found anybody that extraordinary, although there was a lot of amazing people that I worked with.
This question if from Ankita S. in India, where I've just been, actually. "Hello, Mr. Barron. Thank you for all your lovely work. What an honour to have worked with the King! Could you please tell us what, according to you, was that one quality that distinguished Michael from other artists/celebrities in the show business? Do you remember any fun moment(s) you shared, and do you think Michael would be happy with the songs and videos (and the way they are being created) that are being released now after June 2009? Thanks, and regards." That is from Ankita in India.
I just came back from India. I've just been producing a movie over there- a comedy- and it's an incredible country. It's kind of a cliche to say that because it's a country, but it's like a continent; it's like saying Europe is an incredible country, because there's so many different parts of India. But I had a great time, finished up in Calcutta. Anyway, the question... I kind of answer the question about what distinguished Michael from other artists and the atmosphere working with him. Would Michael be happy with the songs and videos and the way they are being created, that are being released now after June, 2009? That is a tough one. I mean, I don't know. Would he be happy? I think he... he was a perfectionist. I think he would want everything done his way. He had exceptional taste and style and ideas, so I don't think so, no. I think he'd want to change everything to be the way he wanted it to be.
This is from MIST in Sweden: "I wonder about the cloth with tiger stripes that later became a tiger cub, whose idea was it and what does it really mean? Also, I am interested to know more about the homeless man who became rich- or did he just got better clothes? Anyone can have their own ideas about it, but what was the purpose about it when you made the video? Whose idea was it?"
The idea of transformation was really kind of an extension of the idea of the Midas touch really, everything changing and turning and glowing. I was pretty obsessed by the idea of transformation at the time. I don't know why, I just see parallels in things and how things could become things and transform. So the ideas really, I think just came out of that. And the Midas touch, turning from a bum in the street to somebody as rich as a king, you know is an old idea, an old Grimm's fairy tale. Those are things that were always around in the ethos, so it was just another part of the video to do that do to. And the cloth and the little leopard... I'm racking my brain, but I think on the single there was a little leopard, wasn't there? Or am I imagining that? And that might have inspired that moment. But yeah, it was really transformation and change.
This is from barbee0715 in Texas, she says "Hi Mr. Barron: First I’d like to thank you for participating in this Q&A. We all really appreciate this." [It's my pleasure.] "And second, I’d personally like to thank you for directing “Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles”-you made me a hero to my little nephews at the time, as I took them to see it repeatedly."
Thank you for that. She goes on to say, "I’m very curious about the Billie Jean film. I’ve seen outtakes from the shoot and Michael seems very relaxed and he’s smiling. I know this is before the outrageous fame made him more shy and reclusive, but he looks so comfortable here, and I know you and your crew had probably not met before. Were there any members of his team there, or did you all just hit it off immediately? What was the shoot like?"
The outtakes that you've seen, we put up I think about 45 seconds of the dailies from the shoot, and they were just kind of a really good insight into what the atmosphere was, really, which was pretty relaxed. You see when the camera rolls, you see Michael before he jumps into his dance, and you see before the camera cuts how the crew are just puttering around, getting on with it. The atmosphere was great. I think we made it very comfortable for him. It was at A&M studios that was down in, it was called a "Chaplin" studio, actually, on La Brea in Los Angeles. The stage was comfortable, there was a really good creative crew, production design, the lighting team- Daniel Pearl- were all really good professionals. Everybody was excited to see Michael but it wasn't... we were all just working together. It was a feeling of we were all working together to do this, not, you know, different "camps" or anything. It was a good vibe. You can see in those rushes [dailies], he was shy and reclusive, but as the day wore on he kind of just got comfortable and enjoyed playing around with what was going on.
Also, barbee0715 from Texas says "I also read before that you came up with the “Midas Touch” idea for the video. Did you already have this vision in mind for another video and then used it for Billie Jean? His team said he wanted a “Peter Pan” quality video-did you take that to mean magical? Did Michael have any input into your vision besides the dancing?"
Well... yes. The Midas touch idea was initially I think it was for [inaudible], it was an idea for a video for her, and we didn't do the video for some reason or another. So the idea was in the back of my mind when I heard this track and from the management that they wanted... that he enjoyed that "Peter Pan" quality to things, which I am a massive Peter Pan fan and love a little bit of fantasy and magic and that sort of thing. So I did take it to mean "magical". When I think of Peter Pan I think of Tinkerbell and I think of this special, almost childish magic that I wanted to bring to it. So I suppose the colors and the vibe gave it that, but I also wanted to go into, to make sure it hit the atmosphere of the track, because in a way, I didn't feelt that the atmosphere of Billie Jean was condusive to like a kid's vibe- it wouldn't be the sort of thing that you would use as a score in a kid's magical film, so I wanted the magic to be slightly older. Hence the lovr and the private detective and that kind of vibe. But still not a dangerous environment, and just... off reality and everything. That's about it.
Also, barbee0715 from Texas, she says "I didn’t have MTV for many years, so I didn’t see your actual video until after Motown 25. I did, however, see parodies of the video-primarily the one that Steve Martin did. I loved that personally, because I took it to be a homage, as he did with Fred Astaire’s Dancing in the Dark with Gilda Radner. How did you feel about parodies of Billie Jean? Were you flattered? Were you annoyed?"
I definitely wasn't annoyed. I was totally flattered. The Steve Martin parody was hysterical. He was wearing these trousers that were totally having a row with his shoes. And you know, the lights weren't working on the sidewalk, they weren't lighting up, which was exactly what was happening and obviously we tried to hide that in the video, but you can get a sense that the delays are there from the lights. We just had unavoidable problems with our coordination with Michael's movements having never rehearsed it and not having enough of a budget to do something that was more electronic. So it was right to be laughed at and parodied. And Steve Martin- I'm a massive fan of Saturday Night Live and Steve Martin. I later did Cone Heads with Lorne Michaels, and talked about this, and I loved that he parodied the video. Big honor. So it was good.
Raquel Pena, actress (The girl on the billboard and in the bed)
How did the “Billie Jean” shoot compare to “Cuts Like a Knife”? Was one more fun than the other?
Each had a completely different vibe. “Cuts Like a Knife” had an “indie” style and feel to it. “Billie Jean” was a major production, like being on a movie set. It was epic! And, of course, there was Michael! Singing and dancing and styling it up! It was surreal…music video history in the making. (FYI…both were directed by Steve Barron, which says a lot about his directorial talent.)
I can’t say one was more fun than the other, but from a performance perspective I had a bigger part in “Cuts Like a Knife,” which is always fun. But I have to say, just being on the “Billie Jean” set for a day, and playing even the small part that I did, was amazing.
How was it to work with Michael Jackson? What was he like? Did he hit on you?
He was fantastic! I have worked with a lot of celebrities, and he was hands down, without hesitation, the sweetest, kindest person I had ever met and worked with.
He had such a playful, kid-like spirit. There were several sets designed for the different vignettes and I remember Michael would do funny things…like he’d sort of disappear into the maze and then pop out of nowhere and “boo” whoever was walking by (he got me more than once). He was working and serious one minute and then goofing around and just having fun with everyone the next.
His brothers (all of them!) showed up on the set for a while, as did Quincy [Jones], and Michael went out of his way to introduce them to me. So nice. I had just met him that day, and he made me feel like we were good friends.
Did he hit on me? No…though he was flirtatious in a charming sort of way!
Any funny stories from the shoot?
Last scene of the video, I had to lie down in the bed (it was actually a wooden board with a sheet over it). They wanted to give the illusion that the body in the bed was Billie Jean. I remember looking up and Michael was staring down at me, and I was like, “OMG, Michael Jackson is jumping in under the sheet with me!”
Anything else you want to mention about working on “Billie Jean”?
Yes. At one point during the day, Michael pulled me aside and said, “You know you’re Billie Jean, right”—more as a statement than a question. He was trying to be serious, but he had that MJ grin…he was playing with me again. I found out later that he and his brothers used to call the zillions of groupies that were always after them a “billie jean” after an incident with one crazy groupie in particular who was really named Billie Jean.
Daniel Pearl, cinematographer, Movie Geeks United interview (starts at 37:20)
Movie Geeks United: Do you remember the first creative meeting you had with Michael Jackson concerning Billie Jean?
Daniel Pearl: Well, the first time I actually laid eyes on him was when we were about to start shooting, and we had lit the day before, and he had come in to rehearse for us. And he had been through it, showing us what he’s gonna do. We pretty much got straight into it… Before we shot, I said, “Well, we’re ready to shoot now, you probably want to go straighten out your hair.”
And he goes, “Oh no, this is my new doo”
MGU: How long was the shoot?
Daniel: I think it was 2 days.
Jill Klein, dresser, Florida Today (April 8, 1984) (archived)
Jill Klein, the girl who picked out clothes for Jackson in "Billie Jean", found that he comes alive in front of the camera. Says Klein, "He has real flair for turning on the magic in front of the camera. I think that the makeup and the hair and the clothes and everything really gets him going. He gets real excited by all that." Klein also revealed that, "He's wearing a leather outfit in 'Billie Jean’ and he's wearing a leather coat in his poster, but you wouldn't catch him wearing that in his everyday dress. It's purely for show.
“He doesn't like the idea of leather clothes, or killing animals."