Leaving Neverland Director Highlights the Issue with the Hype for ‘Michael’
Michael is out this weekend and people are remembering Leaving Neverland. The director of the harrowing documentary gives his thoughts on the Michael Jackson film.
For those who might not know Leaving Neverland was a documentary about the victims in the Michael Jackson child sexual abuse trial. It premiered to small crowds years ago in 2019. Jackson’s estate pursued legal action against HBO and settled out of court. But, the footage and work itself has been dutifully scrubbed from the Internet.
Now, with Michael set to premiere to fan excitement, director Dan Reed was interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter about his response to the fervor surrounding Antoine Fuqua’s movie. It’s interesting to think about how the fan reaction to Michael’s Rotten Tomatoes score has played out. But, that isn’t really a surprise to the filmmaker.
In Reed’s words, the continued success means one thing. “It says that people don’t care that he was a child molester,” Reed explained. “Literaly, people just don’t care.”
“None of the allegations in Leaving Neverland have been seriously challenged, right?,” Reed argued. “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,” he continued. “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.”
Leaving Neverland director talks about Michael Jackson
When it comes to Jackson and his estate, there’s no question that the fan base is a loyal branch of maintaining the pop stars iconography. With all of the different accusations and court cases available for public consumption, you would think defenders would be more rare. You would be mistaken.
Reed has experienced that scathing critique and harassment first hand. But, it is not limited to just one filmmaker. In the rollout for Michael, different journalists have resurfaced their own experiences with Jackson’s fans. The picture is not the prettiest. When it comes to the lack of solidarity between different media sources in the case of Jackson, Reed thinks it’s pretty simple.
“I think clearly some of the press is sucking up to the Jackson machine because: A, the estate and the fan base has always ensured that the price of criticizing Michael is years of invective and smears and what have you,” the director mused. “And B, there’s a ton of money to be made by any kind of association with the Jackson IP. If you can get on board and be part of the success of this movie, then that’s going to be good for you.”
He snarked, “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” and just completely ignore the fact that this guy was worse than Jeffrey Epstein.”
What to make of Michael in the present?
By all accounts, a middling hierography of Jackson’s work wasn’t supposed to get the job done. Hysterically, it still might because the fans are so rabid to remember the glory days of radio pop.
Despite all the controversy, Jackson enjoys towering popularity among certain listeners because of hits like “Billie Jean” or “Smooth Criminal.” And with that said, Leaving Neverland isn’t even easily accessible. So, there won’t be the level of blowback one would expect. Imagine if this film released a few short years ago?
The legacy Jackson leaves is complicated. But, Reed says that it’s really not. And, unfortunately for everyone that ever enjoyed The King of Pop’s music, he’s probably right.
(featured image: Lionsgate)
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