In his first televised interview about his accusations towards Tyler Perry, screenwriter and actor Derek Dixon advised ABC Information that he’s looking for “accountability.”
In June, filed a $260 million lawsuit towards Perry alleging years of sexual harassment, together with guarantees of profession development and acts of retaliation when Dixon didn’t settle for Perry’s advances.
Perry, via his lawyer, has strenuously denied the accusations.
“That is a person who obtained near Tyler Perry for what now seems to be nothing greater than organising a rip-off. However Tyler won’t be shaken down and we’re assured these fabricated claims of harassment will fail,” Matthew Boyd, lawyer for Perry and his TPS Manufacturing Providers, LLC, mentioned on the time.
Talking to ABC Information’ Linsey Davis, Dixon mentioned the alleged acts he beforehand described in his lawsuit. This included an incident wherein, in line with Dixon, Perry jumped in mattress with him one evening when he was staying within the billionaire leisure powerhouse’s visitor room. He additionally mentioned a number of the textual content messages beforehand referenced within the lawsuit, and different occasions.
Requested why he filed the lawsuit and is talking publicly about it, he advised Davis, “I needed to talk out and never keep silent about it anymore.”
Dixon was a collection common on Perry’s BET present “The Oval,” who was shot within the season 2 finale. The actor advised Davis he felt this was in retaliation for not returning Perry’s advances, and that he feared, “if I don’t make him completely happy, I may keep lifeless on the present.”
“For me, that was his method of displaying his energy over over us and our careers, and that he doesn’t have an issue with simply killing one in every of us off,” Dixon additionally mentioned.
Dixon described one other incident wherein he mentioned Perry pressured him to take his garments off and made repeated advances, then the subsequent morning referred to as to apologize. Perry, Dixon mentioned, then advised him he would produce a tv pilot Dixon had written. In response to Dixon, Perry has the rights to that proposed present now.
Davis at one level requested Dixon a couple of letter Perry’s lawyer says he despatched demanding $40 million, which Dixon admitted.
“I feel I used to be searching for accountability on to what he did. I feel what he did was was fallacious, and it wanted to be one thing that will deter him from doing this to anyone else, one other actor,” Dixon mentioned about it.
Saying later that at one level he was getting almost fixed calls and texts from Perry, Dixon mentioned he was in “simply this fixed state of like, if I don’t reply, I’ll lose my job. I’ll be fired or killed off… it took an enormous toll on my nervousness and melancholy.”
When requested what the $260 million his lawsuit seeks is for, Dixon replied, “that quantity is my misplaced job, my misplaced revenue, the lack of the present. The opposite a part of that may be a deterrent for, , how do you cease a billionaire who gained’t cease themselves from doing from doing this?”
Requested what he would say if he was to talk to Perry in individual, Dixon replied, “I’d say, I hope that you just take accountability for what occurred, and I hope that this has taught you to not deal with your workers this manner and to by no means use somebody’s dream to coerce them right into a relationship that’s not skilled.”
Watch the interview under:
