Joseph Fiennes plays Michael Jackson in 9/11 road trip comedy

by Jeremy Mersereau

January 27, 2016

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The star of 'Shakespeare in Love' is bizarrely cast as the King of Pop.

If you were a Hollywood casting director tasked with finding an actor to inhabit the persona of Michael Jackson, who would come to mind? Andre 3000? Bruno Mars? Crispin Glover? How about Shakespeare in Love/Sindbad: Legend of the Seven Seas thespian extraordinaire, Joseph Fiennes? “Um… that could work, I guess… No, no, I definitely see it. Hey, what’s your brother Ralph up to these days?” – Hollywood casting agent to Joseph Fiennes.

Fiennes has officially been cast as the King of Pop in an upcoming half-hour, one-off comedy special for the UK’s Sky Arts network called Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon, which depicts a possibly almost definitely apocryphal story (first reported in a Vanity Fair article in 2011) of Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and MJ going on a road trip together in a rented car after the 9/11 terror attacks made air travel impossible. If true, one can only imagine how many awkward pauses in car conversation there were, courtesy of Brando.

Sky Arts hasn’t announced an air date for the special, but Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon is reportedly part of the network’s planned series of comedies about strange and unlikely moments in arts and culture. Marlon Brando will be played by Brian Cox and Elizabeth Taylor will be portrayed by Stockard Channing.

All of this isn’t even getting into the gigantic elephant in the room (not Brando, the whole “white actor playing African-American musician” thing). At a time when the Oscars are being lambasted for a lack of diversity amidst a general wave of dissatisfaction with the number of opportunities for actors of colour, casting a white actor to play Michael Jackson comes across as somewhat tone-deaf and out of touch.

But hey, I understand, when you have a chance to cast an acting luminary like the King of Fop JF, you take it.

Tags: Film + TV, News, joseph fiennes, Michael Jackson

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