As Flex Alexander again recalls his portrayal of Michael Jackson in the movie ‘Man In The Mirror,’ he reveals why MJ was so “unhappy” and “upset” with the film; he also talks about his infamous “ashy” white look, claiming it was a result of being denied his own makeup artist.
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While appearing in a new interview with ‘The Art of Dialogue,’ Alexander talked about his 2004 made-for-TV film, ‘Man In The Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story.’ He addressed some of the controversial and infamous moments from the film. He also revealed why MJ wasn’t feeling the production, and wasn’t simply over Alexander’s makeup.
Alexander said he honestly thought his film about MJ would be as big and well-produced as the new Michael Jackson biopic, ‘Michael,’ releasing next year. However, he said the quality quickly declined as they failed to clear some of MJ’s biggest hits.
He then addressed the quality of his hair and makeup. He explained the reason behind his infamous “ashy” white look used to portray MJ’s vitiligo battle. Ultimately, Alexander said MJ wasn’t “unhappy” or “upset” with his acting chops. Instead, he had an issue with the producers mentioning certain allegations in the film.
Flex Alexander said:
“I really thought it was going to be like this joint coming out. I really thought that in my mind. I’m like, but we did performances. I did ‘Man in the Mirror’ performance and other songs. I’m thinking like, ‘Yes.’
Then they came to me, you know, like, ‘Yeah, the lawyers, yeah, we can’t use the music.’ And yeah, they ended up being, you know, the beats from a producer or whatever who they got up there. No offense to them, but it just lost something.
And then we’ll talk about the makeup. So, I go and I look and then they have this airbrush and they’re brushing it to test it. And I’m looking at it, I’m just like, ‘Wow.’ I’m like, ‘You can’t get it a little, little smoother, a little darker?’ And they wanted to put a prosthetic nose on me as well. I was like, ‘I’m not doing that. I am not doing that.’
So, we go on and we shoot it. My acting coach at the time, Fred, he came up, he got a role. He was able to play Joe Jackson. Then, I just started thinking about it and I looked and I was like, ‘It is kind of bad. I do look ashy. Yeah. I look very ashy.’ So, I just started having fun with it. You know, if you can’t have fun with it, man, with yourself. Like, then what are you doing?”
Alexander was asked again about the airbrushing and he said:
Yeah, they were airbrushing it on me. Yeah. I would get there at 435 in the morning. I had to go through that process every—well, when it changed, ’cause he had the vitiligo. As his skin got lighter because I did the part of it, you know, not with the makeup. But, it was so bad. The wig was sticking out on the back. It was so bad. Oh my gosh. It was so bad. I can’t even watch. I watched a little bit on YouTube. I was like, ‘Holy sh*t.’ I was like, ‘That’s pretty bad.'”
Alexander was then asked if he ever said anything, or was ready to get out of the role, while looking at hisself in the mirror during airbrushing. He said:
“I did. I said it in the beginning, but it was nothing I could do. That’s why I wanted my makeup artists. I wanted [Murse Arsenal] up there, but they would not, they wasn’t going for it. It was nothing I could, I was trying to give hints, say different stuff, ‘Hey, try this, try that.’ And they, they were, you know, they were bent on, you know, doing it how they did it. It was nothing I could do. At that point, ink was dry, baby. I was there, you know?
And then he made comments about it. He was upset, but he never said anything, you know, about me or my performance. He never—it was the allegations and the stuff that was going on at the time that [made him] upset. He was like, ‘Why do we have to keep talking about this?’
And what the producers did, they just went from court documents and kind of wrote around that. So, they never tried to paint him out, you know, awful or nothing. You know, the last scene is me standing on top of the SUV when he’s acquitted. So, that was, wasn’t their intention. You know, listen, they took a shot at it and it was a brick.
He was [mad], he was definitely not happy about that at all. But, more so because they kept bringing up that stuff, but not nothing that I did. I’m just an actor and, and trying to do my job. That’s it.”
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