Recently, news broke out that Joseph Fiennes, a white British actor, was going to play King of Pop Michael Jackson. In an upcoming British TV movie, Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon, the Shakespeare in Love actor will play the superstar in a screwball “9/11 road trip comedy”, alongside actors portraying Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando.
The story’s premise is that all trapped in New York post the attacks, the three actors hop in a car and drive as far as Ohio. This is claimed to be based off true events, but the authenticity of this story has been debated.
The internet is in an uproar, and that’s not surprising in the least. Considering the continued backlash to the Academy’s lack of people of color nominees, aka #OscarSoWhite, it seems this announcement, let alone this casting choice, seems horribly timed.
At the helm of an issue being spearheaded along talk shows around the country and beyond, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have been protesting against Hollywood’s seeming deeply ingrained favor towards white artists and performers (going as far as to boycott the Oscars), an issue that Viola Davis had publicly spoken about in her acceptance speech at the 2015 Emmys.
The issue of opportunity for black actors is an ongoing one, especially poignant as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences begins to reconstruct and diversify their membership, moving away from traditional views of successful performance and film, one that is more deeply ingrained in racist behaviors.
This being said, the choice to cast a white actor as one of the most popular African-American celebrities of all time, now, is not only strange but also distressing.
Across the internet, there are arguments about the casting choice. Michael Jackson, towards the end of his life, had become lighter-skinned due to vitiligo, a chronic skin condition that causes one’s skin to lose its pigment.
Considering this, Joseph Fiennes has noted in an interview with Entertainment Tonight regarding this topic that:
“[Jackson] definitely had an issue -- a pigmentation issue -- and that's something I do believe," the Shakespeare in Love star explained. "He was probably closer to my color than his original color."
This being said, MJ’s skin was, in fact, white. That, however, does not mean he was white. Across discussion boards, however, people argue whether it makes sense for a white man to play someone with white skin, or if a black man should don “whiteface” which would surely gain backlash from way too many people.
There doesn’t seem to an appropriate answer, and it’s a difficult situation to navigate. Whereas there may not seem like an agreeable answer for the film, press, and audience communities, Michael Jackson did himself weigh in on this subject in 1993 with Oprah.
"Why would I want a white child to play me? I'm a black American (...) I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am.”
There you have it, Michael Jackson doesn’t want to be played by a white man. I doubt this has changed even with his vitiligo. He was raised in an environment where the odds were against him due to his skin color; he made it all the way to stardom and beyond despite the continued racism against African Americans.
He was proud to be who he was, and the film industry needs to learn from this, and actors need to begin standing up for their fellow actors regarding opportunities and representation.
Case closed.
