Dan Reed:

Well, the reason why Wade in particular, because Wade was an adult when he testified in Jackson's favor in 2005 during the criminal trial, the reason why Wade changed his story — and that's what it looks like, and I can understand why people query that — that story of Wade's awakening is the story of the film.

That's — you know, it takes four hours to unpack that. And when you reduce it to its simplest, Wade, as a child and as a victim of Michael Jackson, formed a deep attachment to his abuser. He fell in love with Michael, and that relationship shaped his teenage years and his adult life, up to, you know, until his mid-20s.

So he's 22. He stands up in court, and he knocks it out of the park in defense of Michael. And he is defense witness number one, and probably one of the important reasons why Michael was acquitted of the child sex abuse charges of the 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo.

So, why did he change his mind? Well, he didn't want his mentor, his — the man that he had been in a sexual relationship with, his idol, the man he really admired, he didn't want him to go to jail. And so he lied.

And then it wasn't until a few years later that he had a child of his own, he had a young son, and he describes the moment when he looks at his son, and he imagines Michael doing to his son the things that Michael did to him, to Wade, as a 7-year-old, and becomes enraged, and can't stand the thought.

And then that — that prompts him to look deeper into the way he thought about his own relationship with Michael. And that's when he started beginning to consider it as abuse, because, up to that point, it was just like a special relationship with Michael that had a sexual component, but was also about a bunch of other things and was deep emotional attachment.