In a New Yorker profile covering the full breadth of director Antoine Fuqua’s career, Fuqua revealed that he is skeptical about the multiple allegations of child molestation made against Michael Jackson beginning in 1993.
As previously reported, the director of the forthcoming biopic Michael had to make some massive changes to his original film after it was discovered that a legal settlement made by the Jackson estate forbade any depiction of the events surrounding the original allegations. This meant cutting sequences like the movie’s original opening, which began with Jackson’s Neverland Ranch being raided by police in 1993. As Fuqua told The New Yorker, “I shot him being stripped naked, treated like an animal, a monster.”
In the article, writer Kelefa Sanneh says that Fuqua’s initial take on Jackson’s story “might have read as a provocative defense of its subject,” something reflected in the director’s comments on the allegations Jackson faced. Sanneh in fact says that Fuqua is “not convinced that Jackson did what he is accused of doing, despite the number of accusers (five) and the fact that Jackson publicly talked about sharing his bed with boys.”
Fuqua instead talks about a potential double standard associated with Black artists versus white artists, citing as an example Elvis Presley’s relationship with eventual wife Priscilla, who was only 14 when they met. “When I hear things about us — Black people in particular, especially in a certain position — there’s always pause,” he said. Additionally, he commented that while he didn’t know the full truth, “sometimes people do some nasty things for some money.”