Kenny Ortega spent years working alongside Michael Jackson, but one lesson from the King of Pop has stuck with him more than anything else: protect the creative space by keeping fear out of it. Sitting down on the Chicks in the Office podcast, the This Is It director said Jackson would start rehearsals with the same reminder, essentially, don’t let fear into the room because it kills creativity, and he meant it as a rule, not a vibe.
Ortega described Jackson as hyper-aware of the energy on set and in rehearsals, watching for anything that could shift the room from playful experimentation to nervous compliance. And when that fear showed up, Jackson didn’t just talk about it; he controlled the environment. Ortega said Jackson would sometimes stop rehearsals if executives or accountants were present, because he didn’t want “money people” shutting down ideas with budget talk in the middle of the creative process. In Jackson’s mind, that kind of pressure wasn’t “realism”—it was a creativity killer.
That’s a pretty revealing peek into how Jackson worked at the highest level. He understood that big productions eventually have to face budgets and logistics, but he wanted those constraints handled after the ideas were born, not while they were forming. Ortega’s takeaway wasn’t “ignore reality,” it was: build first, then refine, and don’t let anxiety dictate the ceiling of what’s possible.
Ortega’s comments also land because of his unique vantage point. He directed Michael Jackson’s This Is It, the 2009 documentary built from rehearsal footage for Jackson’s planned London shows, and he’d already worked with Jackson on major tours before that.
He also connected the lesson to his later work, especially with younger performers. Ortega said he carried Jackson’s “fear-free room” philosophy into projects like his Disney work, focusing on collaboration and giving young cast members space to contribute ideas and experiment without being shut down.
If you strip away the celebrity factor, the lesson is blunt and practical: fear makes people play small. Jackson wasn’t allergic to standards—he was obsessed with excellence—but he wanted the path to that excellence to start with freedom, not tension. And Ortega’s point is that this mindset didn’t just produce better work for Jackson; it shaped how Ortega learned to lead every creative room afterward.
