Joseph Fiennes talks about playing Michael Jackson in upcoming road-trip film

After a bit of controversy surrounding the decision to cast Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson in the upcoming short film Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon, the white actor has spoken out to clarify his role as the late King of Pop.

The Hercules actor recently told TheWrap that he too had his doubts when first approached about the project. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I think someone’s got this wrong. I mean, really?,” he said.

Fiennes assures cynics that the short — which follows Elizabeth Taylor (Stockard Channing), Michael Jackson, and Marlon Brando as they attempt to escape New York in a rental car after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 — is a comedic tale, and does not take itself seriously. “Look, audiences, it’s tongue-in-cheek.’ No one’s trying to do an exact impersonation, but it’s just a sense of the fun of the road trip. If it did happen, maybe it happened like this. That’s all it is, a lighthearted take.”