Morgan Freeman Has Just Been Accused Of Sexual Harrassment
Oh, no! Not Morgan Freeman! This is truly saddening.
Just when it sort of seemed that male celebrities coming under fire in the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements had slowed down, then this story pops up.
Morgan Freeman has been accused of sexual harassment, and 8 women have come forward with their claims.
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The first woman who stepped forward with her story was a production assistant on Morgan Freeman's 2015 film, Going In Style. She claims that Freeman would touch her lower back inappropriately, and in one instance even repeatedly tried to lift her skirt asking if she had underwear on.
It seems this type of sexual behavior from Freeman to production staff is the main issue against Freeman. A senior member of production staff and their assistant say that Freeman would harass them and make comments about their bodies on a daily basis during the production of 2012's Now You See Me.
If you’re starting to get to the point of like, “Morgan Freeman? HIM TOO?!” Maybe you’ll begin to understand why women glance over their shoulder everywhere we go. SO many famous men are being outed because SO many men treat women like shit.
CNN has just published an expose, where they have spoken to 16 people and established a pattern of behavior. You can read that right here.
Out of the 16 people, 8 of them were women who had been victim to Freeman's harassment, and the other 8 had all witnessed this behavior from the long-time Hollywood star.
There is a systematic problem within the entertainment industry, hell - within a lot of industries to be honest - and it allows for men to behave a certain way in public with little to no repercussions for how they treat women.
While this issue is obviously very important, I can't help but feel that maybe Morgan Freeman is just an old man stuck in a different time - a time where this behavior was accepted, not even frowned upon. This is not meant to excuse these actions, not one bit.
I think it's far more likely, however, that it just hurts my heart reading these stories about Freeman. This is a man who has soundtracked my dreams - simply because his voice is so iconic.
When you go on twitter, see Morgan Freeman trending, think he died, click on the name and realize it's WORSE.
2018 for you. pic.twitter.com/eM9jgPwozg
I saw Morgan Freeman was trending so of course I clicked on it thinking he died.
I was close! Just the death of his career.
One of the 8 women who has come forward was 6 months pregnant at the time of her incident, where Morgan Freeman gave her the once-over, up and down look at her body and stated "Boy, I wish I was there for that" - or something to that effect.
She had reported Freeman to her HR office, who had reached out to Warner Bros. about the incident when WB's own HR department said they could not corroborate the story - so nothing came of it.
The other women in this mix of alleged victims have mostly stated that they did not come forward out of fear of losing their jobs - which is a very real issue. When dealing with such a high profile name, the stress and anxiety of any harassment or mistreatment can be staggering.
A spokesperson for Morgan Freeman failed to reply to multiple attempts from CNN to receive a statement. They had sent them a list of all the accusations against him and received nothing.
Today, Morgan Freeman issued the following statement:
“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy,” Freeman said in a statement. “I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent.” Source.
As I read this statement, the first thing I notice is that Freeman does not say he did not make these actions. He did state that his intention was never to make anyone feel uncomfortable - a "smooth" way of skirting around the claims.
Morgan Freeman, the man who voices just about everything, was slated to be the voice of Vancouver's Sky Train system - but that project has been put on hold indefinitely following the news of these allegations.
This is the end of an era to me - the era where Freeman's voice unofficially soundtracked so much in our lives (I hear his voice in my head sometimes - it just happens)
On the positive side, the new era of men being held accountable for their crap is still going strong - as it should be!