Colman Domingo defends ‘Michael’ amid claims it “whitewashed” sexual abuse allegations
Colman Domingo has defended the Michael Jackson, Michael, biopic for not covering sexual abuse allegations against the singer.
In the film, which arrives in cinemas worldwide on April 24th, sees Dolmingo portray Michael’s father Joe Jackson.
Michael has been met with a series of scathing reviews ahead of the general release, currently sitting on a lowly Rotten Tomatoes score of 38 per cent.
One of the major negative observations made by critics has been that Michael avoids any of the sexual abuse and child molestation accusations against Jackson, which was brought up to Domingo in a recent press stop.
During an interview on Today, Domingo was asked by the host, “The film does stop in 1988, several years before the first child molestation allegations were made. You know, we live in an environment now where we take survivors of sexually abuse, we take their stories very seriously.”
He continued, “What would you say to folks who see this and say, ‘They whitewashed that part, they didn’t even include that part’. How do you reconcile your performance with that?”
In response, Domingo stated, “The film takes place from the 1960s to 1988, so it does not go into the first allegations in, what, 2005? Basically, we centre it on the makings of Michael. It’s an intimate portrait of who Michael is.”
“That’s what the film is,” Domingo added, before suggesting “there’s a possibility of it being a part two that may deal with some other things that happened afterwards”.
Domingo doubled down on his defence of the film once more, stating, “This is about the making of Michael, how he was raised and how he was trying to find his voice as an artist and be a solo artist. That’s what I have to say about that.”
His comments come after it was previously reported in March by Variety that $15 million was spent on reshoots to remove the depiction of the child abuse allegations against Jackson that were originally included in the film’s ending.
Reportedly, Michael originally included the allegations made in 1993 by Evan Chandler, who accused the star of sexually abusing his 13-year-old son. Jackson denied the allegations, and the parties reached a financial settlement in 1994.
It’s claimed that the production discovered late into the original shooting that the clause in the settlement with the family of Chandler prevented them from portraying the child on film or mentioning him at all. This led to an expensive reshoot, which were reportedly financially covered by Jackson’s estate.
How ‘Michael’ has divided the Jackson family
The late singer’s daughter, Paris, previously heavily criticised the biopic, directed by Antoine Fuqua, for having “a lot of inaccuracies” and “full-blown lies”. She was not involved in the making of the film.
Additionally, La Toya Jackson recently confirmed Janet Jackson doesn’t appear in the film because she declined to be involved.
However, Jackson’s nephews have defended the movie on social media. Taj Jackson took to X to write, “Sorry media, you don’t get to control the narrative anymore of who Michael Jackson truly was.” Taj’s brother, TJ, also wrote on the same social media platform, “The world will be reminded or learn who MJ truly was and I can’t wait!”
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