JANET JACKSON TALKS ABOUT HER ROLE IN TYLER PERRY'S NEW MOVIE "WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO"!

In her new movie, Janet Jackson plays a woman who's plagued by control ­issues, who authors a string of ­successful self-help books and who recently suffered the loss of someone terribly close to her.

In real life, Jackson has acknowledged she has control issues, has just written her own self-help book and, as everyone on Earth must know, recently suffered the gut-wrenching loss of a brother not only close to her but worshiped by the world.

To some degree, tragic coincidence had a hand in this. The 43-year-old star accepted her eerily reminiscent role in Tyler Perry's new movie, "Why Did I Get Married Too?" months before Michael's death. But the pain of that loss resonated through her performance — and left her a near wreck in the process.

"It's one of those roles where you come home every night with a headache from yelling and crying and screaming all day," says Jackson. "It has to take a lot out of you. It was brutal."

"Brutal" isn't the first word most might think would describe a Tyler Perry flick. But as it turns out, this sequel to the director's 2007 smash "Why Did I Get Married?" tips the scales of his usual ­balance between comedy and trauma far in the direction of the latter. It's the heaviest of Perry's morality plays, and the least convincing in its final emotional uplift.

The second "Married" movie also greatly ups the drama surrounding Jackson's character, cutting her a blank check to chew the scenery - as well as to literally smash it.

It didn't make it any easier that Jackson had to go to this dark place just days after her brother's death. Filming was set to begin that very week. "They asked me to take time off," Jackson says.

Did she consider doing so? "Never," says Jackson. "I had a job to fulfill. I left the [funeral] service that night, jumped on a plane, and was on set the next day. Life goes on. You have to as well. You can't just stop. It's not healthy."

While work can provide a helpful distraction for some, that wasn't the case here. Make no mistake, the film does contain plenty of lighter scenes. But it also features the mental breakdown of Jackson's character, and a second death piled on top of one that her character experienced in the first film.

When playing the role, thoughts of Michael were seldom far from her mind. "You can't help but feel it and think about it," she says. "Those emotions go through your mind."

Obviously, such experiences far outrank other problems in the star's life. But unfortunately, they landed right after a heap of letdowns Jackson had endured over the last two years.

Between 2008 and '09, she broke up with her boyfriend of seven years (producer Jermaine Dupri), split with her record company, Universal, after a brief and disastrous relationship, launched a tour so ill-timed that many shows played to half-empty houses, and found herself ballooning in weight, making her the butt of both tabloid jokes and fans' snickers.

Of course, weight has long been an issue for Jackson, which is what inspired her to write about it, as well as other emotional challenges, in her forthcoming advice book, "True You."

"People have always asked me about the weight loss and how I did it. So there's this curiosity," she says.

But the book won't just be a how-to - or a how not to. It means to explore the roots of the problem that has caused Janet to "yo-yo" over the years.

"It stems from my childhood," she says. "Some of it had to do with my career, some with the people around me, and some with events at school.

"Being a sensitive kid, and not wanting to show too much, it affected me. I was tough on the outside but soft on the inside. And it layed on my self-esteem. It took its toll, time and time again. I really did feel there was something wrong with me."

The result played out in Jackson losing great amounts of weight at a time - or gorging and gaining it back. She says the issues that drove this behavior persist.

"It's a work in progress," she says. "I think it will continue to be. I have my moments. But it's a lot better than it was."

Of course, when it comes to weight issues, the notion of control comes into play. In fact, the concept of control has been key to Jackson's career from the start. She first became a recording star with her third album, titled "Control," in 1986. And while that work captured the positive side of the term — the young star finally taking the reins of her career — the new movie presents the negative side of it.

Jackson's character holds everything in, keeping her from seeing reality and, in the process, ruining relationships. She says some of that perfectionism manifests itself in how she keeps her home.

"I'm one of those people where everything is neatly in its place," she says. "I don't think I'm a freak about it, but maybe I am."

Of course, when it comes to housecleaning, a person can maintain control fairly easily. When it comes to career, it's a far trickier issue. Lately, Jackson has found that out the hard way. Her last album, "Discipline," became her lowest-selling work, something she blamed on her record company's lack of promotion. Frustrated by that, she asked to be released from her new contract.

"Thankfully, they allowed me to move on," she says. "I wasn't happy there at all. Sometimes it just clicks and you think it will all work, and in the end it doesn't turn out to be what you thought it was. It's unfortunate."

Four months ago, Jackson released a hits package, "Number Ones," on another division of the label, but it also failed to sell, moving just 127,000 copies so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Still, Jackson says "there are a few offers" for new recording contracts. "I just have to see where I want to go."

The fact remains, however, that Jackson hasn't had an out-of-the-ballpark smash CD in years. In the time since, she has also lost a lot of her critical favor - which, if nothing else, gives her a kind of bond with director Perry. The furthest thing from a critic's pet, he's more like a critics' piñata. Jackson believes Perry's rare popularity counts for a lot more than any printed hosannas.

"Not to put the critics down, but everyone has an opinion," she says. "What's more important is that Tyler has managed to understand what the audience wants and he gives it to them. He knows their lives. Not a lot of directors can do that. And he can do it each and every time."

While Jackson may share Perry's populism, she differs with his view of marriage. For all the hardship and problems the movie presents, ultimately it's very positive about marriage as an institution.

As for Jackson? "Some people want that bond, that togetherness - to know that you belong to one another and no one else. There was a time when I felt I needed it, but now I'm open. If God wills it, it will happen. If not, then I guess I'll just be the girl who's been divorced twice."

In the meantime, Jackson says she finds some of that sense of connection in her relationships at work.

"Whether it's at a label, or on a movie set, or on a TV show like ‘Good Times,' I'm always looking for that sense of family," she says. "I come from a big family and I need that nurturing, that love."

Of course, Jackson's biological family now has one less key member. But in yet another ironic parallel with the new movie, her character ends up lecturing people on the process of grieving and loss.

"Everyone grieves differently, in their own time," Jackson says. "You have to understand that."

And what of her own process in accepting the loss?

"There isn't a day you don't think about it," she says. "I still feel that on a daily basis. Some people don't know how to get out of that place. But you've got to get out. It will never go away, but - with time - it gets a little better."