RSS

Morgan Freeman Responds to Assault Accusations



Last week, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, was charged with rape and other sex crimes following months of accusations and nearly 80 women coming forward and speaking out against him.

Similar accusations have also risen against engulfed men in politics and business and the social media movement #MeToo, has encouraged the victims to share their stories and help the public scene to change and give them support.

Morgan Freeman Accused

In the light of recent events, the latest in a torrent of accusations against male actors is the one against Morgan Freeman.

The Oscar-winning actor has been accused for verbal harassment and creating unsafe work environment by eight different women. Reportedly, Freeman subjected these women to inappropriate remarks about their bodies and harassed them on the press junkets and on the set of his films at his production company Revelations Entertainment.

All women said the remarks happened in public and they solved them alone and not reported them, they simply changed the way they dressed when they knew he will be around and the comments stopped. This all inquiry was started by Chloe Melas, to whom Morgan made some inappropriate remarks while she interviewed him over a year ago for “Going in Style”.

She was 6-months pregnant at the time and he told her “I wish I was there” and “You are ripe”.

Morgan Freeman Says He Is Not Guilty

The 80-year-old actor issued two statements since the accusations have emerged and he is clear in denying it all.

He said that he respects all victims of assault and harassment and that they all deserve to be heard. But that it’s not right to equate those horrific acts with misplaced compliments or humor. He admitted that he always tries to make women comfortable around him and giving them compliments or tries to make a joke in a light-hearted way and that clearly he didn’t come across the way he wanted.

“I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected, that was never my intent” he said in a statement adding that anyone who knows him or has worked with him, know he would never intentionally offend someone or make him or her uneasy. He strongly denied assaulting women or offering employment in exchange for sex. He never created unsafe work environment and is “devastated” that his 80-year-long life full of accomplishments can be destroyed in a blink of an eye.

His roles “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Shawshank Redemption” in the late 80s and early 90s made him a star. He won an Oscar for the supporting role “Million Dollar Baby” and earned four other Oscar nominations so far. He even started Revelations Entertainment in 1996 with Lori McCreary to address serious issues in the industry and to fight for black actors to get better roles. We’ll see how the story develops in the future but one thing is certain, Mr. Freeman should watch his language.

 

Related stories:

Comments are closed.