Morgan Freeman is the latest major name to face serious accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct.
According to an investigation by CNN, the actor’s alleged inappropriate behavior took place on multiple movie sets.
Those who have gone on record about these incidents include female production staff members… employees at Morgan’s own Revelations Entertainment… and a few reports.
Altogether, 16 women spoke to CNN about the Oscar winner’s actions; eight alleged victims and eight more witnesses.
Most of them tell similar, very troubling tales. For example:
One unnamed production assistant told the network that she suffered through several months of unwanted advances and inappropriate comments on the set of the 2017 movie Going in Style.
She alleged that Freeman once “kept trying to lift up my skirt and asking if I was wearing underwear” prior to his costar Alan Arkin telling him to cut it out.
And another example:
A senior member of the production staff for the 2013 film Now You See Me spoke to CNN and said that Freeman made a multitude of comments about her and her female assistant’s bodies.
Said this individual:
“We knew that if he was coming by … not to wear any top that would show our breasts, not to wear anything that would show our bottoms, meaning not wearing clothes that [were] fitted.”
Four of the people interviewed by CNN claimed that the veteran star made women feel uncomfortable on a swath of movie sets over the past decade.
They said they didn’t report his behavior out of fear of losing their jobs.
“He would be verbally inappropriate and it was just shocking,” said an ex-male employee at Revelations Entertainment, the movie production company that the Freeman himself co-founded in 1996.
Added thisperson:
“It’s hard because on any set he is the most powerful person on it. It’s weird because you just don’t expect it from Morgan Freeman, someone who you respect.”
Elsewhere, a trio of entertainment reporters (including CNN’s Chloe Melas) have alleged that Freeman made inappropriate remarks toward them at public press events.
Melas, for instance, says that he repeatedly looked her up and down and called her “ripe” when she interviewed him at a junket for Going in Style … while six months pregnant.
(WTH, dude?!?)
This supposed encounter is actually what led to the opening of CNN’s months-long investigation.
In response to the allegations, Freeman did not accuse anyone of lying, simply of misinterpreting his intentions.
“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy,” he said today via statement, concluding:
“I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected – that was never my intent.”
As documented below, Morgan is the latest in a long and disturbing string of famous men who have allegedly acted inappropriately toward women in and around Hollywood.
Many of these folks will never work again…
