Erin Moriarty hits back at Spike Lee’s defence of ‘Michael’: “Allegations of this severity do matter”
Erin Moriarty has said it’s “fair to question” why accusations of sexual abuse were omitted from the new Michael Jackson biopic, Michael.
Moriarty, best-known for her role in the Amazon TV series The Boys, took to Instagram Stories on May 11th to question the comments made by director Spike Lee over the film and the controversy that has surrounded it.
Lee said last week he felt it was acceptable to leave the allegations out of the movie as the film ends in 1988, five years before Jackson was first accused of sexual abuse, telling CNN, “First of all, if you’re a movie critic, and you’re complaining about the stuff – all this other stuff – but the movie ends at ‘88.”
The director added, “The stuff you’re talking about, accusations, happen [later]. So you’re critiquing the film on something that you want in, but it doesn’t work in the timeline of the film. But people showed up. Worldwide, people showed their love.”
Subsequently, sharing a post which showed Lee’s comments, Moriarty responded: “I think there’s nuance here worth acknowledging”.
She continued: “Allegations of this severity do matter. They are not irrelevant context; particularly within an industry that has historically minimised or enabled sexual abuse and grooming.”
The actor added: “The quality of the film may not be in question. But I think it’s fair to question the broader celebration of it, and what message that may send to survivors.”
Michael has attracted controversy for omitting the allegations of child sexual abuse against Jackson from the film, particularly that of Evan Chandler, the Los Angeles dentist and screenwriter who accused the star of abusing his 13-year-old son in 1993.
This has been echoed by the alleged victims who told their stories in the film Leaving Neverland, with the director of that documentary claiming Jackson was “worse than Jeffrey Epstein”.
The director of the Michael biopic, Antoine Fuqua, said it felt like “a punch in the gut” when he was forced to reshoot the end of the film, and it is not known how the planned sequel, depicting the next part of Jackson’s life beyond 1988, will proceed as a result.
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