(CNN) — Although the project was never released, the fact that Joseph Fiennes played Michael Jackson in 2017 created controversy over whitewashing the character.
Now the actor expressed his regret at taking on the role of the music icon in an episode of the anthology series “Urban Myths.” The episode, which did not air, was about Jackson, Marlon Brando (played by Brian Cox) and Elizabeth Taylor (played by Stockard Channing) supposedly taking a cross-country road trip after 9/11.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Fiennes addressed the backlash to his election.
“I think people are absolutely right to be upset,” Fiennes said.
“And it was a wrong decision. Absolutely,” she said. “And I am part of that: there are producers, broadcasters, writers, directors, all involved in these decisions. But obviously, if I’m being honest, I’ve become a voice for other people.”
Joseph Fiennes in 2019.
(Crédito: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Turner)
“I would love for them to be around the table to talk about that as well,” Fiennes added. “But you know, it came at a time where there was movement and change and that was good, and it was, you know, a bad decision. A serious mistake.”
Due to the uproar, the episode was pulled before it aired, something Fiennes took some credit for during his interview.
“I asked the production company to take it off the air,” he said. “And there were some pretty big discussions, but ultimately people made the right decision.
Fiennes had initially defended the decision in a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“It’s Michael in his last days when, I have to say, he looked quite frankly different than when we grew up with him in the ’80s or earlier,” Fiennes said at the time. “The decision with the cast and the producers: I discussed it, I was confused and surprised by what could come my way, and I knew the sensitivity, especially with Michael’s fans and Michael’s family. He doesn’t deny who he was.”
In a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Jackson rejected the idea of having a white actor play him on screen. Winfrey had asked him about reports that he wanted Pepsi to hire a white actor to play him as a child in a commercial.
“That’s so stupid,” Jackson said at the time. “That is the most ridiculous and horrible story I have ever heard. It’s crazy.”
