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Paris Jackson: I want to be like my dad

Los Angeles - Paris Jackson has opened up to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres about her relationship with her father Michael Jackson.

The 13-year-old daughter of the King of Pop - who died in June 2009 - told Ellen that Michael Jackson's role in Moonwalker inspired her to take up acting.

She said: "My dad was in the movie Moonwalker and I knew he could sing really well but I didn't know he could act. I saw that and I said, 'Wow, I want to be just like him. I was little."

Paris is due to take on her first acting role soon in movie series Lundon's Bridge and the Three Keys, in which she plays the titular Lundon.

Paris also revealed she and her father would do improvised scenes together, and she always took on board any advice he gave her.

She added: "We would do improv together. He would give us little scenarios. He would say, 'OK, in this scene, you're going to cry,' and I would cry on the spot."

Discussing fatherly advice, she added: "He said, 'If I die tomorrow, always remember what I told you.' I took his advice and I remembered everything he told me."

'Stupid' masks

The late singer used to make his children, Prince Michael, 14, Paris, 13, and nine-year-old Prince Michael II - also known as Blanket - cover their faces in public to avoid the paparazzi, and although she once was annoyed by it, she then understood his reasoning.

She said: "I'm like, 'This is stupid, why am I wearing a mask?' But I kind of realised the older I got, he only tried to protect us and he'd explain that to us too."

Despite the immense fame which comes with being the daughter of Michael Jackson, Paris admits she was not recognised when she first went to a "normal" school.

She said: "I do have like a regular childhood. I mean, I'm treated the same. When I came to [my new school] they didn't know who I was. I was like, 'Yes, I have a chance to be normal.'"

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