Casting of Joseph Fiennes raises questions of racism
Following the public backlash of the Oscars nominating solely white actors, British actor Joseph Fiennes has been casted as black American superstar Michael Jackson in Sky TV’s “9/11 road trip comedy.”
Many fans are angered with the casting, yet the Shakespeare in Love actor said on Entertainment Tonight that he thought Jackson was “probably closer to my colour than his original colour.”
Representatives for Sky Arts has said they have given the “producers the creative freedom to cast roles as they wish, in the diversity framework they set.”
Fiennes said he believed Jackson had a “pigmentation issue” with his skin, so the issue of race should not come into play.
Jackson was born black despite being diagnosed with vitiligo later in his life, which lightened the pigmentation of his skin severely. The fact remains however, that he was born black to Joe and Katharine Jackson in Gary, Indiana (which is now 85% black). Jackson also had four black brothers in the Jackson 5. His sister, Janet Jackson, is also black. He had such close ties to Motown that Diana Ross was named Godmother of his children.
CNN Entertainment reporter Chris Witherspoon posted a 1993 Jackson interview with Oprah Winfrey in which he responded to rumors that he wanted a white child to play him in a TV commercial. He responded, “Why would I want a white child to play me? I’m a black American […] I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am.”
The TV special will be a half-hour comedy depicting Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, and Elizabeth Taylor going on an alleged actual road trip following the attack on the World Trade Center.
“This is a one-off, half-hour comedy for Sky Arts,” Dominic Collett, a publicist for Sky ArtS worte. She described it as, “a light-hearted look at a reportedly true event,” that is “part of a series of comedies about unlikely stories from arts and culture history.”
The story about the road trip arose from a 2011 Vanity Fair article that quoted a former employee of Jackson saying: “They actually got as far as Ohio, all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!”
It is such an unlikely story, however, that the validity of the “reportedly true event,” has been debunked by at least one of Elizabeth Taylor’s assistants in Vanity Fair. The assistant said the star had actually stayed in New York following the attacks and visited Ground Zero a few days after.
“Diversity,” is a word that Selma director Ava DuVerney wants people to stop using, as it is a blanket term. It is easier to talk about “racism,” and “structural racism,” then a lack of diversity in the film industry. And so many, including Daily Show host Trevor Noah, have voiced that having a white actor playing a significant African American legend remains problematic.
Steven Thrasher wrote in the Guardian that “Blackface is still blackface even when portraying a light-skinned African American.”