Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris ‘wants to vomit’ seeing white actor Joseph Fiennes play ‘King of Pop’ in comic film
Trailer for film in which Joseph Fiennes stars as Michael Jackson in tongue-in-cheek re-imagining of a road trip across US triggers new round of social media outrage, including comments from singer’s daughter and nephew Taj
Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris says she is “incredibly offended” by a new comic film in which a white British actor, Joseph Fiennes, portrays the late “King of Pop”.
Paris Jackson, 18, also called the tongue-in-cheek film vomit-inducing in a series of tweets following this week’s release of a trailer from Britain’s satellite TV channel Sky Arts.
The 30-minute Urban Myths series on Sky Arts explores real-life stories involving well-known figures, “using a generous dose of artistic licence”, Sky Arts said.
The story about Jackson casts Fiennes in a re-imagined tale of a road trip across the United States that the Thriller singer is said to have taken in 2001 with movie stars Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando.
Jackson, who had the medical condition vitiligo that lightened the colour of his skin, died in June 2009 at the age of 50 after an overdose of the sedative propofol.
The trailer unleashed a new round of outrage on social media about whitewashing, in which white actors are cast to portray characters of other ethnicities.