Popular US film star, 80 year old Morgan Freeman has apologised following allegations of sexual misconduct made by eight women and several others.
One production assistant accused Freeman of harassing her for months during filming of bank robbery comedy Going in Style, CNN reported.
She said the 79-year-old touched her repeatedly, tried to lift her skirt and asked if she was wearing underwear.
Lots of Hollywood and media figures have been accused of sexual assaults since the # Metoo campaign started.
Freeman is the latest well-known Hollywood figure to be accused of sexual misconduct, after allegations of sex attacks by producer Harvey Weinstein led to the development of the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment.
Morgan is also said to have stared at women’s breasts and asked women to twirl for him.
A former manager at the company said Freeman would “come over to my desk to say hi and he’d just stand there and stare at me. He would stare at my breasts.” After another incident, the woman said she “stopped wearing a skirt around the office when he was there”.
Another Revelations staffer said that the actor, while surrounded by a group of men, once “looked me up and down” and asked: “How do you feel about sexual harassment?”
A male staffer characterized Freeman as a “creepy uncle”, recalling an instance in which Freeman massaged an intern’s shoulder. “One time I witnessed Morgan walk up to an intern and start massaging her,” he said. “The intern got visibly red and wiggled out of his grasp, it was awkward.” According to five sources who spoke to CNN, there was no human resources department at Revelations. Additionally, the women whom Freeman allegedly harassed on film sets said they didn’t report his behavior at the time in fear of losing their jobs.
Freeman has however, apologised to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected.
In his words:
“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy,”
Making women feel uncomfortable was “never my intent”.
Since the allegations, greater Vancouver’s transportation system, TransLink, has removed Freeman’s voice from a Visa ad campaign that was running as part of their announcements.