Rupert Everett: 'Jackson was a freak'

Rupert Everett has described Michael Jackson as a "freak" who resembled a cartoon character.

The actor claimed that Jackson would not have been able to survive the pressure of performing his planned 50-date London O2 arena residency.

"I think it was fortuitous that he died," he told The Mirror. "He was supposed to be doing 50 concerts in London. It wouldn't have mattered how good or bad he was. He wouldn't have managed to do them all and the press would have destroyed him."

Despite the pop icon being cleared of ten counts of child molestation in 2005, Everett insisted that he never recovered from the ordeal.

"He was a freak. He looked like a character from Shrek. He was a black to white minstrel. He was crucified by that court case when he was accused of child molestation - that killed him," he said.

"He personified the pain anxiety of a black man in a slave country. We all watched as he changed from black to white. He was living performance art."

Everett appears in upcoming movie Wild Target.