A month after the information of the headline-making lawsuit for sexual harassment and assault towards Tyler Perry hit the web, the media mogul’s accuser, Derek Dixon, is breaking his silence.
As we reported, Dixon, an actor on Perry’s fashionable White Home drama “The Oval,” accused Perry of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and retaliation in a bombshell $260 million lawsuit filed June 13 in Los Angeles Superior Court docket. Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Dixon defined that he “couldn’t simply let him get away with this.”
First Assembly Perry and ‘The Oval’
Dixon particulars his historical past with Perry within the interview, from first assembly the producer (Perry allegedly “singled him out” in a crowd of occasion employees for the opening night time social gathering for Tyler Perry Studios), to Perry finally providing him a minor position of Dale on “Ruthless,” allegedly promising that it was a small position that might “get greater.”
“Everybody deserves to go to work and do their job with out their boss attempting to have intercourse with them,” Dixon instructed the outlet, saying that his aim with coming ahead is, “to assist make sure that the subsequent technology of actors and creatives don’t have to decide on between their goals and their dignity.”
Accusations
Dixon, who’s an overtly homosexual man, made it clear within the interview that he was “not going to talk for Perry” on how he identifies sexually. “No matter his sexual orientation or gender, he shouldn’t be talking to any of his staff whether or not they be males or ladies, homosexual, straight or bisexual about their sexual preferences, how typically they’re having intercourse and bodily assaulting them.”
Dixon detailed one night time in January 2020, when Perry allegedly invited Dixon to his dwelling, the place the 2 drank alcohol. Dixon alleges the author instructed him he was too inebriated to drive, supplied for him to remain in his visitor home. He then says that whereas he was within the visitor home, Perry, “climbed into mattress with me and commenced rubbing my thigh. I instantly jumped out of the mattress and mentioned, ‘I’m not that sexual’ and stood up till he left the room. I believed that my response made it clear that night time that I used to be not .”
Textual content Messages
Perry allegedly referred to as or texted Dixon day-after-day after that interplay, and shortly his minor position of Dale was bumped as much as a recurring position on the “Ruthless” spinoff, “The Oval.”
“It was at all times private and nearly by no means about enterprise,” Dixon mentioned of the textual content exchanges, which grew to become much more frequent when his position was bumped up. “He would say ‘ship pics’ of what I used to be doing or ask to see a photograph shoot that I simply did.”
Round this time, Perry additionally agreed to shoot a comedy pilot that Dixon wrote, one other occasion the place the media mogul exerted his energy over Dixon’s profession. For some time, Dixon defined that they maintained a pleasant relationship, and that there have been many occasions he was round Perry and “nothing” would occur. “So I believed he bought the image, and that created a false sense of safety,” he defined.
“I now notice I let my gratefulness for what he’d executed for me cloud my self-respect.” Dixon additionally alleges that in Perry’s textual content messages, he would appear to get offended if Dixon didn’t reply. “Don’t you dare ignore me. I deserve higher. I deserve consideration on a regular basis,” one textual content within the grievance reads.
Extra Accusations
Dixon breaks down a number of alleged inappropriate cases within the story, together with one second the place he went into Tyler’s trailer for a drink, saying within the interview that he “knew” he needed to go. “All of us have been dwelling at Tyler Perry Studios, working for Tyler Perry — who was the producer, author, and director — and I understood that you simply do what Tyler Perry says, and also you go the place he calls for.”
He claims that Perry was asking him uncomfortable questions on this second, and Dixon saved “deflecting” by telling him that he was not “sexual” or “on the lookout for something.” Dixon claims that Perry allegedly pushed him “towards the wall and grabbed his buttocks.”
Dixon additionally detailed going to Perry’s dwelling in June of 2021 to debate his pilot, in an occasion the place Dixon believed he was going to be raped. “He instructed me to provide him a goodnight hug and as I did, he abruptly and forcefully pulled down my underwear and groped my naked ass,” Dixon defined to the outlet when detailing the allegation in his grievance. “Once I tried to drag my underwear again up, he grabbed my wrists to maintain me from placing them again on. I couldn’t consider what was occurring.”
Dixon defined that he instructed him “‘No,’ ‘Cease,’ and ‘I don’t need this … however he wasn’t stopping. He simply instructed me to calm down and let it occur and that he wasn’t going to harm me.” Dixon allegedly deflected and was capable of de-escalate, finally locking himself within the lavatory of Perry’s visitor home and sleeping there.
In an announcement to Individuals Journal, Tyler Perry’s legal professional, Matthew Boyd, addressed Dixon’s Hollywood Reporter interview. “That is a person who bought near Tyler Perry for what now seems to be nothing greater than organising a rip-off,” the assertion reads. “However Tyler won’t be shaken down and we’re assured these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
Straight From
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