Colman Domingo Credits Paris Jackson for ‘Helpful’ Guidance in Playing Joe Jackson

Colman Domingo did his research for his role in Michael.

PEOPLE spoke to the actor on Sunday, Aug. 31 at the amfAR benefit gala in Venice, Italy, held during the Venice Film Festival. The Oscar nominee, 55, hosted the event and is soon set to star in Michael, a biopic of Michael Jackson, in which he plays Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson.

Domingo tells PEOPLE he received great guidance for his role from Paris Jackson, Joe’s 27-year-old granddaughter, and her brother Prince Jackson, 28. The siblings — both children of the late pop star — offered important insight to Domingo for his portrayal, according to the actor.

“They’re very much in support of our film,” Domingo says of Paris and Prince. “I’m excited to be here at amfAR tonight with Paris. It feels like that’s a nice way for us to be together.”

Domingo adds that Paris has been “very helpful” to him and the upcoming movie, and calls Prince “a man of the film.”

The actor was drawn to the biopic for its insight into the family surrounding Michael (played by the King of Pop’s nephew Jaafar Jackson), he says.

“The thing that has inspired me the most is this very profound and prominent family called the Jacksons,” Domingo tells PEOPLE. “We would not have any of this music that we used to have great memories about, the moments, the big moments, that we all share, because of the Jackson family. And I’m not just saying just Michael — the entire Jackson family.”

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Michael, who died in 2009, was a controversial figure with a complicated life growing up in the spotlight. He also wrote his father out of his will.

Domingo previously told PEOPLE about what he hopes audiences get out of his “complex version of Joe Jackson, who died in 2018.

“Right now I seem to be on the track of interrogating some of these real-life human beings,” he said in February 2024. “I want to find their humanity, I want to find their heart and their humor. It may go against public opinion sometimes, but I think that’s my responsibility to find the complex version of these people.”

Domingo hosted this year’s amfAR benefit gala, which saw Jude Law presenting Julian Schnabel with amfAR’s Award of Inspiration and featured performances by Ava Max and Paris Jackson. The 2025 event raised over $3.4 million for HIV/AIDS research and awareness.