Kat Graham gets candid about her high hopes with Michael Jackson biopic

Kat Graham is looking to recreate legacy with the role of Diana Ross in the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic.

The Vampire Diaries star, 35, was at Pier59 Studios for 2024 TIME100 Next when she exchanged a few words with the press about her next exciting role.

“Hair’s a little bigger,” Graham joked of her makeover to essay the role of the Supremes singer, 80, as she spoke to People during the Wednesday event about how finding out she was cast “was very, very surreal.”

“I had never imagined myself as — who imagines themselves as Diana Ross?” Graham went on. “Maybe in the shower, or in your car. I didn’t think that I would get it. I don’t think like that. I just have a good time and I try to come from a good place.”

The Michael actress also expressed her anticipation for the Black-centric film and her expectations from the role.

“Especially for Diana, she was somebody who in the 1950s, 1960s, was part of a revolutionary time in music that I think impacted what happened in the Civil Rights movement, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence, and it’s such an honor to play her,” Graham added of the Grammy-nominated songstress. 

“I do hope that I honor her with that film, and I hope that I honor other Black women by the work that I do. Whether I’m a humanitarian or an actress,” Graham further told the publication.

Graham then opened up about her own connection to the biopic where some cast members had a real connection to Michael such as Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson who will play the late King of Pop in the biopic.

“I’ve been close with Quincy for a long time," the Heatwave actress said of Quincy Jones who is being played by Graham's friend Kendrick Sampson. Graham also got candid about how being included gave her “a bit of imposter syndrome.”

Graham also remarked that the biopic promises “a lot of good music.”

On a concluding note, the actress shared that she hopes to see the biopic end up recreating legacy like other shows have.

“You think at one point that it’ll die out and then you look at shows like Friends or some of these iconic shows, and you’re like, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be cool to be part of something like that that has some kind of legacy.’

The biopic, set for a theatrical release on April 18, 2025, also stars Colman Domingo stars as family patriarch Joe Jackson, with Nia Long as matriarch Katherine Jackson.