Derek Dixon, who just lately sued Tyler Perry for sexual harassment, claimed that the media mogul threatened his function on The Oval if he didn't endure the alleged behaviors.
“What [my character Dale getting shot] meant to me was if I don't make him completely satisfied, I might keep lifeless on the present,” Dixon, 35, stated throughout a Tuesday, September 9, look on ABC News. “To me, that was his approach of exhibiting his energy over us and our careers. He doesn't have an issue with killing one in every of us off.”
Dixon, who starred on BET's The Oval from 2019 to 2024, alleged that he ceaselessly acquired messages of harassment from Perry, 55, throughout his tenure on the TV present.
“I used to be extraordinarily anxious. It bought to some extent the place the calls and texts had been virtually daily,” he alleged. “[I was in] this fixed state of, ‘If I don't reply, I'll lose my job. I'll be fired or killed off the present.' It took an enormous toll on my anxiousness and my despair.”
Dixon named Perry in a $260 million lawsuit in June, accusing the showrunner of quid professional quo sexual harassment, sexual battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional misery and retaliation. Perry vehemently denied the allegations by way of an legal professional. (Us Weekly has reached out for remark.)
“That is a person who bought near Tyler Perry for what now seems to be nothing greater than organising a rip-off,” Perry's lawyer Matthew Boyd stated in a press release to ABC Information on Tuesday. “Tyler won't be shaken down and we're assured these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
Derek Dixon. ABC/Heidi Gutman
Dixon, in the meantime, maintains his model of occasions and additional alleged on Tuesday's broadcast that Perry as soon as groped him and stated to “simply go along with it.”
Actor Derek Dixon broke his silence after accusing Tyler Perry of sexual assault and harassment in a $260 million lawsuit final month. “I couldn't simply let him get away with this,” Dixon informed The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, July 10, in his first interview because the accusations went public. “Everybody deserves to go to work […]
“In that second, except somebody's been by way of one thing the place they've their management of their physique taken away, you don't actually perceive the sorts of emotions you get in that second,” Dixon stated. “It was virtually, like, each thought got here by way of my head to run, to struggle [or] to freeze. I didn't know what to do.”
Dixon claimed that Perry later apologized for his actions and promised to assist produce Dixon's self-written TV script.
“To me, it's simply so insulting,” Dixon claimed, including that he frequently reiterated how he needed to de-escalate the scenario. “[My pilot] hasn't gone anyplace. He nonetheless owns the rights to it, so I can't go anyplace [else] and promote it.”
Perry additionally beforehand alleged in a press release of his personal that he was being extorted by Dixon with the lawsuit claims.
“I used to be in search of accountability for what he did,” Dixon stated, denying the extortion allegations. “I feel what he did was fallacious, and it wanted to be one thing that might deter him from doing it to another person [or] one other actor sooner or later.”
He continued, “Justice would appear to be considering I've made a change, and one thing like this received't occur to a different actor that works for him or one other actor within the business. That might be justice for me.”
