Suzanne de Passe Reveals the Nickname She Called Michael Jackson for 'Decades,' Recalls Seeing Jackson 5 for the First Time (Exclusive)
Suzanne de Passe Reveals the Nickname She Called Michael Jackson for 'Decades,' Recalls Seeing Jackson 5 for the First Time (Exclusive)
Meredith Wilshere, Scott HuverSat, April 25, 2026 at 2:59 PM UTC
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Suzanne de Passe and Jermaine JacksonCredit: Eric Charbonneau/Le Studio/Wireimage -
Suzanne de Passe discovered The Jackson 5 and convinced Motown founder Berry Gordy to give them a chance
She nicknamed Michael Jackson "Casper" and called Marlon Jackson "Dudley"
De Passe says Jafar Jackson perfectly embodies his uncle Michael in the new biopic Michael
It's unlikely that The Jackson 5 would have reached the same level of global stardom without Suzanne de Passe.
The music and film producer, 79, reflects on the first time she saw the iconic group perform while chatting with PEOPLE at the Hollywood premiere of Michael on April 20.
De Passe says she was invited to visit Motown singer and producer Bobby Taylor one day in the late 1960s when he mentioned a new act.
"He said, ‘I want you to see something.' And I was standing, and he clapped his hand and said, ‘Okay, fellas, this is Suzanne. She works for Mr. Gordy and she can get us the audition.' "
Jackie Jackson, Prince Jackson, Suzanne de Passe and Marlon JacksonCredit: Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
“They got up and they sang like four songs acapella, blew me away," de Passe, who worked as a creative assistant to Motown founder Berry Gordy at the time, says.
She continues, "This is way before cell phones. So I went back to my apartment and called Mr. Gordy. I didn't get him the first day. And when I finally spoke to him, I said, ‘Okay, so Gordy, I saw a great act.' He said, ‘Great, that's what you're supposed to do. You're my creative assistant.' I said, ‘Wait 'til you see these kids.' He went, ‘Kids? I don't want any kid acts. Do you know how much trouble Stevie Wonder is?' ”
While de Passe was still new to Gordy's team and was “still learning everything," she felt confident that she was onto something good.
“And my, I think, claim to fame is I did not give up. I was relentless," she shares. "And when he saw them, it was the beginning of this history."
The Jackson 5 was formed in 1964 and included Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael Jackson. Taylor famously discovered the group in 1968 in Chicago, later bringing them to Michigan. By 1969, the group already had a hit with the release of "I Want You Back," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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Despite what “most people perceive,” de Passe says that Michael was “very much a kid" when the band was thrust into stardom. The singer was just 5 years old when the band was first formed and 10 by the time they were signed to Motown.
“When we were on the road, we would all be on the same floor and keep our doors open and stuff like that. And he liked to hide in my room," she recalls. "And you know, he'd be behind the curtain and you'd see his little feet sticking out from the curtain, the shower curtain, the closet and he would go, ‘Boo!' And I would go, ‘Yeah, yeah, you really scared me. I was so scared.' "
This led her to give the then-tween the nickname Casper, after the friendly ghost.
“For the next three decades, I called him Casper, and he answered. Michael was Casper and Marlon was Dudley, as in Dudley Do-Right, because he was very law-abiding,” she shares.
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The JacksonsCredit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
About the movie Michael, she shares that Jafar Jackson, who is playing Michael, is the “embodiment of his uncle” and “if you don't have Michael, you don't have a movie.”
“They have a movie because of Jafar. And all the things that went into it, of course, the production and the direction and all of that, the cast. But I think the big difference is Jafar.”
De Passe, meanwhile, is played by Laura Harrier in the film, an experience which she calls "good and weird!”
Michael is in movie theaters now.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
