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Director Blasts Michael Jackson As ‘Worse’ Than Epstein

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Michael Jackson
Photo Credit: Zoran Veselinovic, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The director of “Leaving Neverland” says Michael Jackson was “worse than Jeffrey Epstein,” blasting a new biopic for ignoring the abuse allegations that have shadowed the singer.

Dan Reed, who directed the 2019 documentary “Leaving Neverland,” argued that any portrayal of Jackson that avoids those accusations is incomplete.

“How can you tell an authentic story about Michael Jackson without ever mentioning the fact that he was seriously accused of being a child molester?” Reed said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Reed’s film focused on accounts from Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who both said Jackson abused them when they were children.

The documentary drew widespread attention at the time of its release, earning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.

Despite the absence of a criminal conviction against Jackson, Reed said he believes the accusations reflect what actually happened.

“I think Jackson was genuinely a very nasty man and hurt a lot of children,” Reed remarked.

“And he may have been a great entertainer, but those two things don’t cancel each other out. The fact is that pedophiles exist, and he was one of them, and he made those choices.”

Reed went further, rejecting the idea that a person’s own experiences excuse abusive behavior.

“Many other people who’ve been abused as a child did not choose to abuse others,” he argued.

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The renewed criticism comes as the Jackson estate continues to push back against those claims, maintaining that the singer was never found guilty and calling Reed’s documentary a distorted portrayal.

The estate previously described “Leaving Neverland” as “a one-sided marathon of unvetted propaganda to shamelessly exploit an innocent man no longer here to defend himself.”

Reed also addressed why the documentary disappeared from HBO’s platform after several years of availability.

He said the removal stemmed from a contract tied to a 1992 concert recording that Jackson had signed with the network.

“The contract contained a non-disparagement clause,” Reed said, explaining that the estate argued the provision should apply indefinitely to anything HBO produced.

“The estate argued that the non-disparagement clause, which says, ‘You can’t say anything nasty about Michael,’ applied forever to everything that HBO would ever do — which is patently ridiculous,” he added.

Reed said HBO ultimately reached a settlement with the estate that resulted in the documentary being taken down after six years on the platform.

According to Reed, the rights will revert back to him in 2029, at which point he intends to make the film available again.

He also said he is continuing work tied to the subject matter, including a follow-up project that revisits Robson and Safechuck.

Both men are pursuing a $400 million claim against Jackson’s estate, alleging the singer abused them during their childhood.

Robson has said Jackson began grooming him when he was seven years old after the two met following a dance competition.

He later testified in Jackson’s defense during a 2005 trial in Santa Barbara, where the singer was acquitted of charges involving a different accuser.

The debate over Jackson’s legacy continues to resurface as new projects tied to his life move forward, including the upcoming biopic that Reed criticized.

While those disputes remain unresolved, a separate controversy involving another high-profile figure has unfolded in parallel, this time centered on admissions about past sexual conduct.

Russell Brand, who is facing multiple allegations of rape and sexual assault, acknowledged during a recent interview that he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old when he was 30.

“The plain fact of it is, in Europe and in the United Kingdom, where I’m from, the age of consent is 16,” Brand said during an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show. “And I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30.”

Brand described himself at that time as immature and acknowledged that the relationship involved an imbalance.

“I think it is exploitative,” he stated. “I recognize that my sexual conduct in the past was selfish.”

He added that he failed to consider how his behavior affected others. “I did not apply enough consideration, barely any, I suppose, really, to how that sex was affecting other people,” Brand added. “I was only ever thinking of myself.”

Brand emphasized that he believed the encounters were consensual, while also acknowledging the wider ethical concerns tied to his actions.

“I had consensual sex with lots and lots of women, and you can argue that that’s not appropriate,” he remarked.

He also tied his behavior to the opportunities created by fame and personal struggles. “What fame gave me, and what addiction fueled, was opportunity for endless consent, which led me to be a hedonist and a fool and an exploiter of women,” Brand claimed. “That is wrong, and that is something that needs to be redeemed.”

At the same time, Brand rejected the criminal allegations against him, drawing a distinction between his admissions and the claims of non-consensual encounters.

“What I’m obviously not only querying, but violently or aggressively, or assertively opposing, is the idea that this is a judicial criminal matter where consent was overridden,” he said.

“Actually, what happened was is consent was directed,” he added.

Authorities have charged Brand in connection with accusations from four women involving incidents that allegedly took place between 1999 and 2005. His trial is scheduled for October 12, 2026.

Brand also addressed the possibility of prison during a separate appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, saying the prospect is something he considers regularly.

“Yes… all the time, every day,” he acknowledged when asked whether he thinks about it.

“I will be with God wherever I am,” Brand said. “If the truth is I am going to prison, then I am.”

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