Entertainment tonight has releases a couple of videos that show Morgan Freeman making creepy sexual comments toward female reporters that sat down to interview him.
Watch:
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 2016, while promoting his film, London Has Fallen, Freeman sat down for an interview with ET correspondent Ashley Crossan, during which he asked, on camera, if she was married and if she “fooled around with older guys.”
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.
Freeman may have apologized for making people uncomfortable, but he sure didn’t seem to care about it when he was making those comments.
Totally uncalled for. Yeesh!