A day after eight women accused Morgan Freeman of sexually harassing behaviour, two more conversations have been unearthed in which he made journalists feel uncomfortable.
Entertainment Tonight aired the video on Thursday and posted it on YouTube on Friday. It showed ET reporter Ashley Crossan interviewing the actor in 2016 during a London Has Fallen junket.
“Are you married?” Freeman asked; Crossan said she was not. “Fool around with older guys? I’m just asking,” he replied.
Janet Mock had a similar moment while working as a special correspondent for ET in 2015.
“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 cross your legs,” Freeman, who turns 81 next month, said during a 5 Flights Up junket as Mock sat down and got herself settled.
“I was deeply disappointed that someone who was seen as America’s grandfather was susceptible to such disturbing behaviour and felt comfortable enough to do that as cameras were rolling,” Mock — who’s also a writer, Hollywood multi-hyphenate and transgender activist — told ET on Thursday.
Earlier, a CNN report cited eight women who said they felt uncomfortable after Freeman looked at them in a sexual way or made suggestive comments. In one case, a young production assistant said he had asked if she was wearing underwear and repeatedly tried to lift her skirt.
Through his representative, Freeman said he would never “intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy.”
“I apologise to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent,” he said.
SAG-AFTRA says now that the lifetime achievement award it awarded him in January is under review. A partnership between Visa and Vancouver Transit that would have featured Freeman doing voiceovers on public buses was yanked as the credit-card company said it would suspend all marketing that featured the actor.
At a 2016 Ben Hur roundtable, Freeman commented on torn jeans worn by freelance reporter Taylor Ferber, according to a report from the Blast. Though Blast writer Caitlyn Becker, who was also there, said the “objectification of the reporter felt obvious” to her, Ferber told the outlet that the exchange did not bother her at all.
“It was a totally innocent, hilarious, and a great personal moment that lightened the environment, which can often times be awkward or stiff,” Ferber said. “It wasn’t at all ‘creepy’ or too much, and felt like a comment my grandparents would make — they actually agreed when they watched the video, which they got a kick out of.”
