Dan Reed

You know, I felt kind of sad because the story of Jackson's

childhood and his becoming an incredible sensation against the odds you know you've got a cruel father who like you know whooped him with his belt and that whole story and actually the child actor who plays jackson when he's very little was good i thought so that very early part of the film i i kind of got into and i was like oh that's amazing and the kid is fantastic is that pretty accurate is it an accurate portrayal of the father do you think

I don't know.

So I've never, you know, my film essentially is about these two guys who were molested by Jackson, James Safechuck and Wade Robson.

That's what my film's about.

It's about these two guys.

And I didn't concern myself with Jackson's career.

But I do believe from what I've read that that's sort of more or less accurate that, you know, he, that Joe Jackson was a real martinet, you know, a tough taskmaster.

And he gave the boys a hard time and particularly on Michael, you know, so.

And from that comes the whole myth of like, oh, well, Michael Jackson never had a childhood.

And, you know, and therefore he had to spend lots of time with children.

You know, so what actually happened is he stole a lot of other kids' childhoods because he didn't have one.

And, you know, he ruined a lot of other children's childhoods, which is in a very spectacularly cruel way.

And so I think, you know, look, we wouldn't make a film about Jeffrey Epstein's, you know, contribution to charitable work.

to philanthropy or Harvey Weinstein's amazing movie career, without mentioning the fact that there's a darker side to these characters.

But it seems to be possible for people to believe that Jackson is innocent, partly because he started constructing his own cover story while he was alive.

I'm just a big kid and I like to spend time with kids because they're pure and I'm pure and, you know, he portrayed himself as this sort of asexual being.

And I think, well, that's fine, but just play with the kids during the day.

But why don't you give the children back to their parents at night?

You don't have to go into your bedroom with a little boy at the age of seven or eight or nine and lock the door and spend the night alone with this child while their parents are sort of distracted somewhere else.