Janet Jackson calls film role "intense," "cathartic"

LOS ANGELES: Playing a grieving mother in a movie even as, in real life, your brother's death stirred the world would be hard for anyone, and for Janet Jackson the experience proved "intense" and "cathartic," she said.

Her new movie, "Why Did I Get Married, Too?" debuts in U.S. theaters on Friday, and has Jackson playing a self-help psychologist who suffers a family tragedy and then sees her marriage fall apart.

"It was very intense for me. Very cathartic and therapeutic at times," she told Reuters about working on the movie that was filming on June 25, 2009 when pop star Michael Jackson died.

"It was draining as well. Taking that home and eventually it leaving my body and getting up and starting all over again the next morning," said Jackson.