Spike Lee shuts down critics who slammed Michael Jackson biopic for not addressing sexual abuse allegations
Spike Lee shuts down critics who slammed Michael Jackson biopic for not addressing sexual abuse allegations
Wesley StenzelSun, May 3, 2026 at 5:15 PM UTC
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Spike Lee in Los Angeles on March 15, 2026; Jaafar Jackson in 'Michael'Credit: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic;lionsgateKey points -
Spike Lee said he's seen the new Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, twice: "Love it."
The director shut down critics who've panned the movie for excluding the sexual abuse allegations against the pop star.
"You're critiquing the film on something that you want in," he said, "but it doesn't work in the timeline of the film!"
Spike Lee doesn't care what critics say about Michael.
The Malcolm X filmmaker praised the Michael Jackson biopic, noting that he's "seen it twice" so far. "Love it," he said in an interview with CNN.
The Do the Right Thing filmmaker, who directed the music video for Jackson's 1996 song "They Don't Care About Us" and helmed two documentaries about the singer after his death, said that one particular criticism of the biopic doesn't hold up in his eyes.
"If you're a critic, and you're complaining about the stuff that, you know, all this other stuff," he said, in references to the multitude of allegations of child sexual abuse made against Jackson. "But the movie ends in '88! And the stuff you're talking about, accusations, happened [later]. So you're critiquing the film on something that you want in, but it doesn't work in the timeline of the film!"
Spike Lee in New York City on Aug. 11, 2025Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Indeed, Michael does not address the abuse allegations lobbied against Jackson because it concludes five years before his first accuser came forward in 1993.
Colman Domingo, who portrayed Jackson's father Joe Jackson in the movie, defended the film against similar criticisms last month. "There's the possibility of there being a part two that may deal with other things that may happen afterwards," he said. "This is about the making of Michael, how he was raised, and how he was trying to find his voice as an artist."
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However, a Variety report recently claimed that the biopic doesn't address the sexual abuse allegations against Jackson because the singer reached a settlement with accuser Jordan Chandler that forbade any depiction or mention of the accuser in any film project.
The report claimed that director Antoine Fuqua planned to depict the fallout of the accusations, and that the filmmakers shot a scene of investigators searching Jackson's home for evidence, but after the singer's estate discovered the clause in Chandler's settlement, the film was retooled to exclude the allegations altogether.
In the CNN interview, Lee reflected on Jackson's legacy. "I miss Mike [and] I miss Prince," he said. "I mean, these are my brothers. I mean, you know, worked with both of them. Both beautiful, beautiful people."
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Lee also praised "They Don't Care About Us" earlier in the interview. "[The song] really speaks about what has happened today in the world," he said. "And they released the song and it just — Michael, Prince, great artists like that, when you're a great artist, you see stuff before it's even happened, I feel. It's a gift, a God-given gift. And you're in tune with the universe."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
