Antoine Fuqua doesn’t shy away from the challenge of creating a film about the greatest entertainer of all time.
Speaking ahead of MICHAEL hitting the big screen, the Training Day and The Equalizer director opened up about stripping away some of the myths surrounding him to reveal the real man, adding that viewers won’t get to see everything that was captured on camera.
“A lot of young people don’t know a lot about Michael,” Fuqua stated. “Because you get so excited about seeing him dancing and performing, you don’t think about him as a human being anymore.”
And, according to Fuqua, revealing the truth about Jackson has never been as important, as there is still much to learn about him.
“He was lonely at times,” Fuqua explained. “He was very centric, and he leaned in on his friendships with the animals and things like that. He was like that since he was a little boy. He’s always felt a little bit isolated, because he’s been giving us his artistry since he was 10 years old.”
One of the moments that resonated with me personally came from Fuqua showing Jackson chanting affirmations before stepping onto the stage. According to the director, the scenes weren’t included by accident.
“He has to hype himself up. This is Michael Jackson hyping himself up to believe in himself. That’s part of his message: to believe in yourself. That’s what he communicates with the audience.”
In Fuqua’s eyes, Jackson not only entertained his fans but also promised them something deeper.
“Even when he’s performing, Michael’s always telling you something. He’s teaching you something with his dance moves, the way he communicates with the audience. That’s a relationship he has that’s special and spiritual between him and the audience. I wanted to make sure you feel that.”
One of the most memorable scenes of the movie comes from his 1984 Pepsi commercial accident. Fuqua and producer Graham King studied the footage carefully and decided to approach it with particular attention to detail.
“We went over it over and over and over, because it was the beginning of some pretty ugly things in his life. We wanted to make sure it hit home and that it was authentic to what happened. It wasn’t over the top in any kind of way. It came out of nowhere, right? And it was shocking and pretty brutal on Michael.”
Fuqua surprised me with the following statement: “Michael almost died from that accident. I don’t know if people know that, but he almost died.”
Talking about a possible sequel, he revealed that the movie features more than three hours of footage, and it took a while to edit it down to two.
“Everything, like every director does. It’s heartbreaking when you’ve got to cut some stuff, man,” Fuqua explained. “There’s some great stuff. But that’s every movie, right? You have to make some hard choices sometimes for the bigger picture.”
Then, the director listed several of his favorite songs from each period of Jackson’s career: “Off the Wall,” songs from Thriller, and even the Jackson 5’s “This Place Hotel.”
“Normally, there’s two or three on each one. It’s not just one,” Fuqua added.
After some thought, Fuqua chose “Man in the Mirror”.
“Man in the Mirror is probably the most spiritual, emotional song,” Fuqua concluded. After some discussion, “Human Nature” rounded up his list of favorite Michael Jackson songs.
“Michael’s got songs that I forgot he did,” the director said in amusement. “You forget he did so many songs. He’s had everything, man.”
When I said that I am looking forward to seeing a sequel to the movie, Fuqua grinned.
“Yeah,” he said. “I can’t either.”
MICHAEL is in theaters.
