Paris & Taj Jackson Are Super Pissed Off W/ Joseph Fiennes’ MJ Portrayal

The daughter and nephew of Michael Jackson have taken to Twitter to express their dismay over MJ‘s portrayal in upcoming British TV comedy Urban Myths.

A trailer released yesterday features Joseph Fiennes – a white guy, just in case anyone had any doubts – in some pretty questionable prosthetics attempting to play the King of Pop.

It’s frankly astonishing that no-one on the production considered that this might go down poorly with MJ’s legions of stalwart fans, or the world at large, let alone his still-grieving relatives.

Cop it:

The MJCast, a Michael Jackson podcast, were the first ones to contact Paris Jackson, the singer’s daughter. Turned out she had a lot to say:

@TheMJCast i’m so incredibly offended by it, as i’m sure plenty of people are as well, and it honestly makes me want to vomit.

— Paris-Michael K. J. (@ParisJackson) January 11, 2017

@TheMJCast where is the respect? they worked through blood sweat and tears for ages to create such profound and remarkable legacies. shameful portrayal

— Paris-Michael K. J. (@ParisJackson) January 11, 2017

@TheMJCast it angers me to see how obviously intentional it was for them to be this insulting, not just towards my father, but my godmother liz as well

— Paris-Michael K. J. (@ParisJackson) January 11, 2017

Taj Jackson, MJ’s nephew, also voiced his displeasure with the debacle:

@soledadobrien Unfortunately this is what my family has to deal with. No words could express the blatant disrespect. https://t.co/WKCiwOqPpN

— Taj Jackson (@tajjackson3) January 11, 2017

Last year, Fiennes spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about his participation in the project:

Obviously that wrangling didn’t keep him up at night too much (read the interview – he goes on about “colourblind casting” for some time as though that’s something that is relevant at all to his career as a white bloke). 

One can only hope that his hindsight is in full colour vision, and hopefully the final product is a little less confusing for viewers – and as respectful to MJ as is possible.