After Criticism That "Michael" Ignores Child Abuse Allegations, Colman Domingo Defended The Biopic

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Warning: Discussion of child abuse.

The stars of the upcoming biopic Michael addressed criticism over the film not including the numerous child abuse allegations that Michael Jackson faced over his career.

The movie was originally supposed to tackle the allegations as a key plot point. In March 2024, Puck reported that the script opened with the police arriving at Neverland in the 1993 investigation into molestation claims made by 13-year-old Jordan Chandler. Much of the final third of the movie was then dedicated to the allegations, with Puck claiming, "The script then goes to great lengths to minimize and downplay the actual claims and eviscerate the Chandlers."

However, none of that is in the movie going to theaters because, as Variety reported, the movie had to have $15 million of reshoots. The reshoots were reportedly necessary after attorneys for Jackson's estate realized a clause in the settlement with Chandler prohibited any depiction of him in a movie.

Instead, the tension focuses on Michael's relationship with his father, Joe Jackson, played by Colman Domingo. In a new interview with the Today show, Colman and Nia Long (who plays Katherine Jackson) were asked about concerns that the movie "whitewashed" the abuse allegations by ending at the apex of Jackson's career.

The specific question was: "We live in an environment now where we take survivors of sexual abuse's stories very seriously. What would you say to folks who see this and they're like, 'They whitewashed that part'?" 

"The film does stop in 1988, several years before the first child molestation allegations were made," Colman replied. "The film takes place from the '60s to 1988, so it does not go into the first allegations in, what, 2005?"

Wade Robson, one of the subjects of the documentary Finding Neverland, alleged that Jackson abused after they met in 1986. Jackson and his estate have always maintained his innocence.

"Basically, we center it on the makings of Michael. It's an intimate portrait of who Michael is, Colman said, with Nina emphasizing, "Through his eyes."

Colman was announced as the role of Joe Jackson two months before Puck reported on the script's initial focus. 

"There's the possibility of there being a part two that may deal with other things that may happen afterward. This is about the making of Michael, how he was raised, and how he was trying to find his voice as an artist and be a solo artist," Colman added.

Michael director Antoine Fuqua has questioned the allegations made against Jackson, telling the New Yorker in a separate interview, "Sometimes people do some nasty things for some money.”

You can read more about the movie's controversies here.

If you are concerned that a child is experiencing or may be in danger of abuse, you can call or text the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (4.A.CHILD); service can be provided in over 140 languages.

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