British actor Joseph Fiennes will star as Michael Jackson in the upcoming comedy Elisabeth, Michael & Marlon. Problem : the fact that he is white has spurred “complaints” on social media.
Produced by Sky Arts, Elisabeth, Michael & Marlon is a comedy based on a 2011 Vanity Fair article reporting a strange road trip during which Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor drove from New York to Los Angeles in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Stockard Channing will play Taylor, and Brian Cox has been cast as Brando.
Once the news was confirmed, many people have spoken out on social media about the choice of Fiennes to play Jackson, an African-American man who suffered later from vitiligo, which caused his skin to lose pigment and whiten.
This news comes in the midst of another conversation concerning the lack of diversity in Hollywood as only white actors were nominated at this year’s Academy Awards. One of the criticism was that even when telling the story of people of color, white actors were the preference.
On Twitter, many users expressed their confusion :
I’m fine with Joseph Fiennes playing Michael Jackson as long as Viola Davis plays Marlon Brando.
— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) January 27, 2016
Too crazy for words! #JosephFiennes playing Michael Jackson! What next? Tom Cruise playing Muhammad Ali? Uma Thurman playing Rosa Parks?
— Duncan Whitehead (@DuncanWhitehead) January 27, 2016
Joseph Fiennes can play Michael Jackson. (A real person). But Idris can't play James Bond (a fake spy for a fake agency)? Cool, cool, cool.
— Prentice Penny (@The_A_Prentice) January 27, 2016
I stared at the screen for a solid minute with my mouth open after finding out this Joseph Fiennes – Michael Jackson nonsense.
— Lina Lamont (@_negativenancy_) January 28, 2016
The silliness that is casting Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson. SMH
— Y Konar (@ykdesignsonline) January 28, 2016
