Joseph Fiennes admits that playing Michael Jackson was a mistake

We’re probably several dozen casting-related racial controversies past the bizarre decision to have Joseph Fiennes star as Michael Jackson in Urban Myths, the 2017 anthology series from Sky Arts. The episode, which also starred Brian Cox as Marlon Brando and Stockard Channing as Elizabeth Taylor, was pulled before it ever aired (“in light of the concerns expressed by Michael Jackson’s immediate family”), but production photos of Fiennes with white makeup caked on his face live forever.

“I think people are absolutely right to be upset,” Fiennes says in a new interview with The Observer, which notes that he is “possibly the only time an actor could be accused of both blackface and whiteface at the same time.” Fiennes admits it was the “wrong decision,” but also notes that he’s just “one part of that—there are producers, broadcasters, writers, directors, all involved in these decisions.”

Sure, but if he’d turned down the part, there would be no creepy whiteface photos of him on the Internet. Fiennes acknowledges that “obviously if I’m upfront, I have become the voice for other people. I would love them to be around the table as well to talk about it.” We’re sure he would! “But you know, it came at a time where there was a movement and a shift and that was good, and it was, you know, a bad call. A bad mistake.”

At least Fiennes can own up to that now, despite trying to deflect some of the blame onto the decision-makers. And hey, the people who hired Fiennes do deserve some of that blame, but they wouldn’t have been able to hire him if he wasn’t, you know, hireable.

In addition to deflecting blame, Fiennes would also like to share some of the credit: “And, just to say, I asked the broadcaster to pull it,” he claims. “And there were some pretty hefty discussions, but ultimately people made the right choice.”