An actor and screenwriter has accused Tyler Perry of sexual harassment, alleging in a lawsuit that the media mogul repeatedly made unwanted advances and sought to cover up an assault with an offer to develop a show.
The 46-page complaint, which was filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court and seeks punitive damages totaling $260 million, compares the allegations to those against other well-known entertainment industry figures accused of sexual misconduct.
“Mr. Perry’s success has led him to believe that money and influence can get him whatever he wants,” the complaint says, adding: “Mr. Perry sought the one thing his wealth and influence could not purchase — a sexual relationship with a man who would remain silent.”
In a statement, a lawyer for Perry accused the plaintiff, Derek Dixon, of trying to get close to Perry “for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam. But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
According to the lawsuit, Perry offered Dixon — who at the time worked for an events company — his first acting role in 2019. A few months later, he invited Dixon to his home in Georgia and served him several drinks before he told him to stay in his guest room, according to the suit.
Perry suddenly appeared in Dixon’s bed and began groping him, according to the suit.
“Dixon kept informing Perry that he was not into sex in order to keep Perry at bay while at the same time not insulting the person who was dangling his career in front of him,” the suit says.
Perry continued to text Dixon about his sex life, according to the suit, which says that the more Dixon ignored Perry the more aggressive he became. After Dixon quit his job and took a role on Perry’s show “The Oval,” the suit says, Perry would ask about his sexual preferences, go on sexually explicit rants and call or text him almost daily, treating him as his on-call “pet.”
Dixon’s character in “The Oval” was scripted to be shot at the end of the season, but according to the suit, Perry indicated that he might survive the shooting and appear in future seasons if Dixon did a “good job.”
“Dixon immediately understood his job security depended on his ‘relationship’ with Perry,” according to the suit, which adds that Perry warned Dixon not to discuss any of their conversations with castmates or tell them about their friendship.
The suit accuses Perry of groping Dixon twice in 2020, including during a cast trip to the Bahamas. In 2021, at Perry’s house, Perry pulled down Dixon’s underwear and “began to vigorously grab, grope, and play with Dixon’s buttocks in a sexual manner,” the suit says, adding, “Dixon was naked, stunned and seized by tremendous fear.”
After the alleged assault, the suit says, one of Perry’s lawyers told Dixon that “Christmas came early” because he had done a good job on “The Oval.” He was given a raise for the following season, according to the suit, and Perry wanted to buy the rights to shoot a pilot for a script Dixon had written, called “Losing It.”
The suit says Dixon struggled with the decision about whether he should go public with allegations of sexual assault or accept Perry’s money. He ultimately “bowed to the pressure,” the suit says, and sought to advance his career.
While Perry purchased the rights to the script and filmed it, the suit says, he “had no intention of ever producing ‘Losing It.’ Perry never made any effort to sell the show or shop it. Perry was only using the show as a quid pro quo to Dixon, holding its production over Dixon’s head like the sword of Damocles.”
The show was not developed, according to the suit, and Perry later offered Dixon a position as a writer on one of his shows. Dixon turned him down and filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it says. The status of that complaint was not immediately clear.
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