Morgan Freeman has been accused of sexual misconduct by eight women, including allegations of “unwanted touching” and harassment, in a report published Thursday by CNN.
CNN spoke to the eight women, as well as eight other people who say they witnessed inappropriate behavior by Freeman on film sets, while promoting his movies and also at his production company, Revelations Entertainment.
Aside from WGN entertainment reporter Tyra Martin and Chloe Melas, a CNN entertainment reporter who co-authored the story, none of the accusers is named in the story. Both accused the star of making unwelcome comments about their appearance during movie junkets.
A spokesperson for Freeman has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment; CNN also wrote that it did not receive a response to multiple requests for comment.
A young production assistant on “Going in Style” told CNN that Freeman would make comments about her figure and clothing on a daily basis, as well as touching her back. Because of her experience, she said she decided to leave the movie industry.
Another woman who worked on the 2012 movie “Now You See Me” said Freeman sexually harassed her and made comments about her body. “He did comment on our bodies… 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,” she said.
Each of the women said they didn’t report Freeman’s behavior because they feared for their jobs. Instead, the women said they tried to come up with ways to combat the harassment on their own. Examples of that were dressing in a different way when the actor was around.
Three entertainment reporters told CNN that Freeman made inappropriate remarks to them during press junkets. Melas said she was six month pregnant when she interviewed Freeman last year when he was promoting “Going in Style” and that he told her, “I wish I was there” and “you are ripe.”
She reported what happened to CNN human resources which then involved Warner Bros., which produced and distributed the movie. According to Melas, Warner Bros. could not corroborate the account because only one of Freeman’s remarks was caught on tape. (A rep for the studio did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.)
Source: The Wraps
