Of all the criticisms levelled at the authorised biopic of Michael Jackson released earlier this year, the most persistent was that Antoine Fuqua’s film failed to mention the sexual abuse allegations against the singer. In part, this was due to a legal clause, only spotted late in production, which stipulated that one of the men who accused Jackson of abusing them as a boy could never be depicted in a fictionalised account of the period. A sequence involving a police raid at the Neverland ranch was cut, $50m (£37m) of reshoots were funded by the Jackson family, and the narrative was curtailed early.
However, the enormous box office response to the film, which recently overtook Oppenheimer as the highest-grossing biopic of all time, has meant a sequel is inevitable. Speaking to Variety, star Jaafar Jackson – the nephew of the man he plays – downplayed the first film’s production woes, saying: “I’ve heard many stories from other actors about how much you shoot on a project that doesn’t make it into the final picture. So going in, I knew not everything we shot would make it into the final picture.” Speaking to GQ Middle East, the actor, who made his screen debut in Michael, also suggested the sequel would address the allegations, albeit from the accused’s standpoint.
It’s someone else’s idea of what it is …” “And that’s really the issue we’ve been having as a family – not having Michael’s voice being heard. I think that’s very, very important, especially in [his later] years.” The actor continued by saying that he felt there was considerable continuity of his uncle’s character between the time periods covered by the films. And no matter all the stuff he went through, how he was treated, what things were said about him, he never stopped treating people with kindness.
He never stopped believing in and wanting to look for the good in people … even though he was broken, his heart still stayed the same.” Earlier this year, Fuqua said the sequel to the film would not “sensationalise” details of Jackson’s life. Stay on that path and then we’ll be OK, because that’s what it’s about. It’s a biopic, it’s about a human being, he’s a real person.” One of the bestselling music artists of all time, Jackson’s solo sales topped 500m records.
He was first accused of sexually assaulting a child in 1993 and settled out of court the following year. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted on other child sexual abuse charges, and died from an accidental propofol overdose in 2009, aged 50. The 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland detailed further child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson; its director, Dan Reed, criticised the biopic on its release as containing “zero insight into what makes Jackson tick”, saying: “He’s this asexual plastic action doll of a figure in the film.
And of course, the issue of his relationship with children is completely distorted by the fact that they portray him as an eccentric, overgrown child, which we know is not the full story.” Reed added: “The film just flips the truth on its head – black is white, white is black, and two and two make five … it’s a movie that’s impossible to take seriously.
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