The 80-year-old actor issued an apology on Thursday after being accused in a CNN report of harassment by multiple women who worked with him in a professional capacity.
On Thursday, Morgan Freeman issued a statement of apology following accusations of harassment by multiple women who have worked on movie sets with him, worked for his production company, or interviewed him in a professional setting.
In a CNN report published on Thursday, eight women alleged that the 80-year-old actor subjected them to inappropriate behavior, including unwanted touching and comments about their figure. Several of the accusers said they didn't report Freeman's alleged behavior because they feared for their jobs.
Freeman responded to the accusations in a statement to ET. "Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy," the statement reads. "I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected -- that was never my intent."
However, interview footage from past ET sit-downs with the Oscar-nominated actor shows more examples of questionable behavior, as described in the CNN report.
In 2015, author and activist Janet Mock served as an ET special correspondent covering Freeman’s film, Five Flights Up. During their junket interview, Freeman addressed Mock’s appearance, saying, “I don’t know how you all manage to do that all the time.”
“You got a dress halfway between your knee and your hips, and you sit down right across from me and you cross your legs,” he continued.
Mock, who is currently writing and producing for Ryan Murphy’s new FX series, Pose, addressed the encounter in a statement to ET on Thursday, saying, “This interaction is an exhibition of the casual nature at which men in positions of power believe that everything belongs to them, including women’s bodies as they’re merely just trying to do their job.”
“For me, as a young woman of color, who is a reporter and a fan of popular culture, I was deeply disappointed that someone who was seen as America’s grandfather was susceptible to such disturbing behavior and felt comfortable enough to do that as cameras were rolling, and that he could take claim of my body and look at it before even looking into my eyes.”
Entertainment reporter Chloe Melas, who co-authored the CNN piece on the accusations against Freeman, said she began reaching out to women after experiencing what she described as her own inappropriate encounter with the actor, at a press junket for his 2017 film, Going in Style.
Melas, who was six months pregnant at the time, claims Freeman looked her up and down while shaking her hand, and repeatedly said some variation of “I wish I was there,” as cameras rolled in front of his co-stars and other junket personnel. The reporter said she was later told that Warner Bros. HR could not corroborate the account because only one of Freeman's remarks was on video and the Warner Bros. employees present did not notice anything.
See more on the accusations against the actor in the video below.
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