Why People Are a Little Upset About Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson

Twitter is looking askance at Joseph Fiennes' portrayal of Michael Jackson

Last year, news broke that Joseph Fiennes, a white British man, had been cast as late music icon Michael Jackson, a black American man.

Fiennes’ role comes as part of a new TV movie called Urban Myths: A Brand New Collection of Comedies, an anthology of “true… ish” stories from Britain’s Sky Arts. The true-ish story in question is an alleged road trip that Jackson took with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando after flights were grounded in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks of 2001.

With that information under your belt, read Fiennes’ defense of his casting: “I deal in imagination, so I don’t think imagination should have rules stamped on them,” he told the AP last year.

Twitter, perhaps unaware of Fiennes’ imagination-dealing, was shocked when the first trailer hit the internet today.

@jfiennesfans, the official Twitter account for the Joseph Fiennes Fansite (Instagram: Jfiennesfans) called the trailer “quirky.”

But with that in mind, it’s important to keep perspective:

Urban Myths is set to debut Jan. 19 on Sky Arts.