Though director Dan Reed said it was hard to film the two talking about the sexual elements, what he found even more disturbing to lay out in the movie was what he called the "emotional manipulation" by Jackson. Robson and Safechuck say Jackson made them feel they were in a special relationship with him, only to feel throw aside later.
"He portrayed himself as this man who loved children and is a great benefactor of children, but he was the opposite," Reed told Business Insider. "He was a man who hurt children and did dreadful things to them."
Robson and Safechuck say Jackson would give them gifts, cash, talk on the phone with them (or in the case of Robson, fax), and pay the travel expenses for them and their families to visit him whether it was at his California home, Neverland Ranch, or on tour somewhere in the world.
Robson and Safechuck were suddenly shut out from the person who was their everything.
"You're no longer special," Safechuck says in the movie about how he felt after realizing Jackson was focused on someone else.
Reed said that's the part of the movie for him that's the toughest to watch: when Jackson shuts out the boys.
"To do that to a little child that you seduced, whose world you completely turned upside down; Jackson played God with these kids and then he disappeared," he said. "He left their lives in ruins and that's what I think we're holding him to account for."
Part 2 of "Leaving Neverland" airs on HBO on Monday. Both parts are available now on HBO GO/NOW.
SEE ALSO: MoviePass closes up its Los Angeles office after firing its business development team
