Michael Jackson played by a white man: The internet is angry

On February 10, 1993, clad in a dazzling red shirt, black epaulettes and a black armband, Michael Jackson walked across one of the many rooms of his Neverland Ranch in Santa Ynez Valley, California. Striding past what appeared to be an enormous portrait of himself in Elizabethan garb, Jackson was there to meet a guest — Oprah Winfrey — and unburden himself. Even before allegations surfaced claiming the star had sexually abused children — as they did later that year — it seemed there were a lot of stories circulating about the King of Pop. And, live on national television before an audience of 90 million people, Jackson wanted to set the record straight.
Did he sleep in an oxygen chamber? No, Jackson said. Had he purchased the Elephant Man’s bones? No, Jackson said. (“Where am I going to put some bones?”) And did he want a white kid to play him in a Pepsi commercial?
Jackson sighed. Then he got mad. Or, perhaps, as mad as Jackson got.
“That is so stupid,” he told Oprah. “That’s the most ridiculous, horrifying story I’ve ever heard. It’s crazy.”
The question, it seemed, struck at the core of Jackson’s amorphous identity. Though stricken with vitiligo, a skin condition that lightened his complexion in patches, the singer who idolised James Brown was still black and proud.
“Why?” he said of the rumour. “Number one, it’s my face as a child in the commercial. Me when I was little. Why would I want a white child to play me? I’m a black American. I’m proud to be a black American. I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride in who I am and dignity. That’s like you wanting an Oriental person to play you as a child. Does that make sense? … So please people stop believing these horrifying stories.” He added: “When people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me.”
Now, a version of what so horrified Jackson — who, if anyone needs to be reminded, died in 2009 — has come to pass. The very white actor Joseph Fiennes, perhaps best known for playing the Bard in Shakespeare in Love, has been cast as Jackson in a film for British television.
People were angry.
Just two weeks ago, Oscar nominations were announced — and, out of 20 acting nominees, not a single person of colour was to be found. This revived the previous year’s “#OscarsSoWhite” controversy about whether minorities remain underrepresented in the film industry.
Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith, among others, are sitting out the awards. Oscar host Chris Rock is now in the middle of the racial storm surrounding the glitzy event. The Academy, its president said, is trying to diversify its membership.
And what seemed like a whimsical project produced on a foreign isle — Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon, which details the purported flight of Liz Taylor, Marlon Brando and Jackson from New York City in the wake of the September 11 attacks — hit social media with a digital thud.
“Joseph Fiennes is not surprised he was cast to play Michael Jackson,” one Twitter user wrote. “ I threw up in my mouth! #diversity.”
“I mean, at this rate, why not cast Judi Dench as Michael Jackson?” Ed Wong of the Atlantic tweeted.
“Producers say it’s creative diversity,” actor Miguel Nunez wrote. “Then let me play Donald Trump.”
As the world defended the legacy of the man who may be the most beloved performer in history, Fiennes took refuge at Entertainment Tonight. And he wanted to talk about Jackson’s diagnosis. “[Jackson] definitely had an issue — a pigmentation issue — and that’s something I do believe,” he said. “He was probably closer to my colour than his original colour.”
The movie, Fiennes said, was not a broadside against people of colour trying to break into Hollywood. He said the film is “not in any way malicious. It’s actually endearing.”Sky Arts, who produced the film, also defended the casting decision. “Sky Arts gives producers the creative freedom to cast roles as they wish, within the diversity framework which we have set,” the network said in a statement, as the Associated Press reported. The company added that it “puts the integrity of the creative vision at the heart of all its original commissions.”