Jessen Aroonachellum

Actor. Director. Producer. Critic. Presenter. Geek. Spotlight link:

[Jessen Aroonachellum @JessTrouper]

My updated showreel. Rep: @freeYOURstyleCo #actor #comedicactor #characteractor #bameactor #filmactor #theatreactor #commercialactor #actorlife #showreel.

[Taj Jackson @tajjackson3]

Just want to take this time to thank the MJ fans who have been tirelessly fighting the phony allegations and narrative of lies for decades. Outsiders will never know how hard it is to be ridiculed, teased, bullied and questioned for rightfully standing up for MJ..
I’m letting you know now that I clearly see you and appreciate you.
We have fought side by side on the battlefield many times together. And we still have those battle scars to prove it. Just know, You will always have my deepest respect and appreciation.

It is easy to stand next to someone when everything is going great. But when things get rough and they truly need you, “Will you be there”?

My answer was always yes for my uncle Michael. And will always be.

[Jessen Aroonachellum @JessTrouper]

@MatthewACherry

[The Art Of Dialogue @ArtOfDialogue_]

Spike Lee, who directed classic films like Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X, says he liked the Michael movie and calls out people complaining about things that aren’t in the film that didn’t happen within its timeline, pointing out that the movie ends in 1988.

[Bill Bottrell @BillBottrell]

I spent a few days with Lisa Marie supposedly writing a song or 2, but in truth, she wanted to talk to someone about Michael.
Can confirm: She loved him very much.
(sorry O has to be in this vid)

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Part 3. There’s a second version of this video. You’ve probably never seen it.

Michael Jackson and Spike Lee shot two music videos for “They Don’t Care About Us” in 1996. The Brazil one is the one everyone knows, with the kids and the drums and the favela streets. The other one was filmed in a real prison with real inmates. Jackson appears in handcuffs. It was the first time in his career that he made two separate videos for a single song.

The prison version is harder to watch. Between shots of Jackson singing from inside a cell, Spike Lee cut in actual archival footage: the Rodney King beating, the Chinese military crackdown on student protesters at Tiananmen Square, KKK rallies, the assassination attempt on Governor George Wallace, and scenes from war and genocide. It’s not dramatized. It’s the real news footage, looped under the chorus.

MTV rarely played it. Most music channels kept it off rotation. The Brazil version has over 1 billion views on YouTube. The prison version has less than a tenth of that. Most of us who grew up with this song have only ever seen half of what Jackson made.

There’s a story about how Spike Lee even got involved. Jackson called him directly to ask him to direct a video, and Lee hung up three or four times because he thought it was a prank. Jackson eventually came to his house with the album on a CD. He put it in the player and said, pick one song. Lee picked “Stranger in Moscow.” Jackson told him no, you want “They Don’t Care About Us.” Lee agreed. Then Jackson asked him to direct two.

The Brazil version was the one meant for the world. The prison version was the one he made for America. And America hid it.

Then in 2020, after George Floyd was killed, Spike Lee cut a third version. He pulled footage from both original videos and spliced it with scenes from Black Lives Matter protests in cities around the world. He released it on what would have been Jackson’s 62nd birthday. Suddenly the prison version wasn’t old news anymore. Twenty-four years after it was filmed, the same footage was playing in streets again. The video you’ve never seen might be the one he actually made this song for.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Part 2. Michael Jackson never wanted to change a single word of this song.

He was forced to. A week before the album came out, The New York Times leaked the lyrics and called two of them antisemitic (“Jew me, sue me” and “kick me, kike me”). That same night, 60 million Americans were watching him talk to Diane Sawyer. He said he wasn’t racist. It didn’t land. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the biggest Jewish civil rights groups in the world, wrote him demanding the words come off the record.

Three weeks later, executives from his label flew him to a Sony studio in New York to re-record the lines. According to a memoir from one of those execs, Jackson didn’t say a single word to them the entire walk to the booth. He was furious. He re-sang “do me, sue me” over the old line. He changed “kike me” to “strike me.” He left.

The song tanked in America. It peaked at #30 on the Billboard Hot 100. His previous single had been #1. His whole 90s run had been #1 s. This was the floor.

Then something strange happened over the next 25 years. The song refused to die.

In 2014, after Ferguson, crowds started playing it at protests. In 2020, after George Floyd, they were singing it on the streets in Atlanta, London, Cape Town, Paris, Rio. On what would have been Jackson’s 62nd birthday that August, Spike Lee cut together a third version of the music video, splicing in footage from those protests around the world. In 2023, the original Brazil video crossed 1 billion views on YouTube.

The kid voice you hear at the start of the song (the one yelling “Enough is enough of this garbage”) is still there in every single play.

The song America tried to bury at #30 became a protest anthem in 20+ countries. The day after Jackson died in 2009, the mayor of Rio announced a statue of him in the hillside slum (favela) where he filmed the video. It’s still standing.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Michael Jackson had to cut a deal with a drug lord to film this video. The Brazilian government tried to block the shoot. A judge banned the filming. The police refused to enter the area.

Rio was bidding to host the 2004 Olympics and didn't want the world seeing footage of its poorest neighborhoods. So Spike Lee walked into the favela (Rio's version of a hillside slum) and found the local crime boss. His name was Marcinho VP. He ran one of the city's biggest gangs, Comando Vermelho. He also happened to be a huge Jackson fan, and he provided the whole production with security for free.

A higher court eventually overturned the ban. The police still wouldn't go in. So 1,500 police officers and 50 residents acting as security guards sealed off the favela. Jackson arrived by helicopter. He walked the streets handing out candy to the kids. The people who lived there had woken up early that morning to sweep the streets and take out the trash before he got there.

Mid-shoot, two women burst through security. One knocked Jackson flat. Spike Lee helped him up and he kept dancing. That exact take is in the final video.

For the Salvador half of the shoot, he worked with 200 drummers from a local group called Olodum. The media coverage put them on the map in 140 countries. They'd been a regional act before the shoot. They became a global one after.

Over 200 million people watched the premiere around the world. The song itself peaked at #30 in America. In Germany it went to #1 and stayed on the chart for 30 weeks, the longest run of any Jackson song there. The video crossed 1 billion views on YouTube in 2023. Only one other Jackson video has done that: Billie Jean. He's the first solo male singer from the 1900s with two videos over a billion.

The day after Jackson died in 2009, Rio's mayor announced they'd put a statue of him in the same favela where the video was shot. Locals said the turnaround of their neighborhood started with his visit.

[The Geek Monty @the_geekmonty]

Episode 35 of The Geek Monty! Here @JessTrouper and @devally discuss #HenryCavill’s #Highlander reboot, #KatherineKennedy and #BobIger departure from #Lucasfilm and #Disney (respectively) and more topics! Listen and enjoy! 🖖🏾

https://t.co/owI9YNUuYD

[Deborah Meaden 🇺🇦 @DeborahMeaden]

He is way too thin skinned to be PM. Imagine him under the same attack as Starmer day in day out..

[London Live @LondonLive]

The Great Experiment is a new stage performance about a period of the slave trade, dubbed the international shame of India. @jamesdickman94 has been speaking to the team ahead of their 1st show on the 6th at the @The_Dugdale before it moves around the capital until the 23rd.

[Narinder Kaur @narindertweets]

The media are gunning for Mandelson (rightfully) but Today's question is -
Why are MSM protecting Nigel Farage who is mentioned FORTY 43 times and counting

£895,000 house paid for cash.
Nathan Gill
Russian bribes
32 former pupils say he's a racist bully
Epstein Files 43 mentions
Uk Church warden via khazakstan donor of £200k

Farage remains untouchable. Why?

[Jessen Aroonachellum @JessTrouper]

Here is my commercial reel. From #Vodafone, #UberEats, #Indeed, #ThisMorning and #IBM. Rep by @freeYOURstyleCo. ( Editing credits: @devally. Thank you.) #actor #actorlife #commercial #commercialreel #actingshowreel #characteractor #comedicactor #casting

[Jessen Aroonachellum @JessTrouper]

@TheFigen_

[Erisa | fan account @thegoldeneri]

Got extra emotional when I remembered this picture of Jaafar Jackson watching uncle Michael perform in 2001. Couldn’t ask for better casting

[Michael Jackson @michaeljackson]

MICHAEL - in theaters April 24, 2026 #MichaelMovie

[Jamila 🔔 @_iamjamila]

Michael Jackson’s original nose was big. That’s the point. He felt immense insecurity around it. To not showcase that would be a misstep on production. WE know Michael was beautiful before his rhinoplasties, but unfortunately that’s not what he felt. Them adding the prosthetic isn’t mockery, it’s accuracy.

[Jessen Aroonachellum @JessTrouper]

@CoxNathan1each @GavinNewsom https://t.co/x5CRwJed9A

[Jessen Aroonachellum @JessTrouper]

@BladeoftheS

[Prof. Devi Sridhar @devisridhar]

The data shows Brexit was a massive mistake and badly hurt the economy. We're all paying for it. It was Nigel Farage who sold the lies that it would make life better. How can anyone still listen to him about anything?