Dan Reed, the director of Leaving Neverland, a 2019 documentary that explored child sexual abuse accusations against Michael Jackson, said the singer was “worse that Jeffrey Epstein” in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“So a lot of people, I think, will kind of swallow any misgivings they may have and just sort of say, ‘Oh well, it’s a great jukebox movie,’” Reed said ahead the release of biopic Michael. People “just completely ignore the fact that this guy was worse than Jeffrey Epstein.”
Michael, distributed by Lionsgate, was released April 24th with Jaafar Jackson, the nephew of the deceased entertainer, playing the titular role. Antoine Fuqua directed the film. The Hollywood Reporter said the movie is tracking to be one of the year’s biggest box-office draws. While the movie is selling tickets, it has been heavily criticized for ignoring charges that Jackson sexually abused children, accusations that had followed him from the early 1990s.
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While Jackson was acquitted of felony sex abuse charges in a 2005 criminal trial, his broader legal history remains defined in part by civil proceedings: most notably a $23 million settlement in 1994 stemming from allegations made by then 13-year-old Jordan Chandler that halted an earlier criminal investigation, and protracted litigation by multiple accusers against his business estate following his death.
The popularity of the film “says that people don’t care that he was a child molester. Literally, people just don’t care,” Reed argued. “None of the allegations in Leaving Neverland have been seriously challenged, right? But there was enough noise online from those simplistic debunking [videos] that people found it easy to give themselves permission to like Michael Jackson’s music again, if they ever stopped liking it. I think a lot of people just love his music and turn a deaf ear. And short of having actual video evidence of Michael Jackson engaged in sexual intercourse with a 7-year-old child, I don’t know what would be sufficient to change these people’s minds.”
Fuqua, per a report by The New Yorker, expressed skepticism that Jackson sexually assaulted children. The director said he didn’t know the truth behind the allegations, but added, “Sometimes people do some nasty things for some money,” a cryptic reference that could be directed at Jackson’s accusers who sued.
“For Antoine Fuqua to accuse people of gold digging is kind of ironic. It seems to me all the people involved in this movie are just making bank,” Reed told The Hollywood Reporter. “How can you tell an authentic story about Michael Jackson without ever mentioning the fact that he was seriously accused of being a child molester? I just don’t really see it. If anyone’s making money, it’s Michael Jackson’s estate and the people who worked on this biographical picture.”
It is worth noting reports say Michael had originally planned to address the molestation accusations made by Chandler. However, due a previously overlooked agreement signed by the Jackson family, which promised that no film about the musician would include Chandler’s story, the third act of the Michael was rewritten to exclude that plot point.
Leaving Neverland, released on HBO, focused on the experiences of Wade Robson and Jame Safechuck who came out as adults and said Jackson sexually abused them while they were children.
Consequence deemed Michael a “bad” film with only “superficial interest” in exploring the context of Jackson’s life and art, “leading to a truly vapid filmgoing experience.”
In December, a photo of Jackson with Epstein was released by the Department of Justice.
