The One Career That Janet Jackson Never Got To Pursue

Janet Jackson has had a successful career as a singer. During the late 90s, she received top accolades from Billboard's Artists of the Decade, just second behind Mariah Carey. However, what casual fans might not know about the star is that she actually started her career through acting roles.

Outside of appearing on her family's variety show "The Jacksons" in the mid-1970s, Janet also appeared on programs such as "Diff'rent Strokes" — before progressing into larger film roles including "Poetic Justice" alongside Tupac in 1993. "Pac was crazy and I adored him so and he was one way – I think people saw him and not to say that that wasn't him, but he also had another side to him – he was fun and silly and he used to call me square all the time," Jackson told 92.3 in 2018.

Almost three decades since the film, Jackson has continued her music career. However, the star recently opened up about the one job she never got to do.

During a new cover story with Allure Magazine, singer Janet Jackson has revealed the career she always wanted to do — but ultimately, never pursued. Although she held acting roles as a child in a famous family, she had wanted to study business law, before her father encouraged a performance path.

"We would always write music growing up. We had a studio at my parents' house; it's still there actually. So any time of day or night, if you couldn't sleep or had an idea before school, after school, you could go in the studio and put it down, your idea, musically. So I did that and I put this idea that I had down and played all the parts on it and, like a genius, I left the tape on the machine and when I came home from school I was so embarrassed," Jackson said. "They were listening to the song. My father, some of my brothers."

"And that's when my father said, 'I think you should become a performer.' I said, 'No, no, no, no, no! You don't understand. I want to go to school. I want to go to college and study business law and support myself by acting.' That's how it all started," she explained.

Fans will soon get a chance to learn even more about Jackson, as her official "Janet" two-part documentary on A&E and Lifetime will be released in late January, according to US Magazine.