Actor Morgan Freeman (above) is under fire after a report accusing him of misconduct
Morgan Freeman’s creepy on-camera remarks to female reporters have been revealed, as the actor issues a new statement denying wrongdoing, saying he just likes for women to ‘feel appreciated’.
Entertainment Tonight dug up the interview clips in its archives after eight women, including three female reporters, accused 80-year-old Freeman of sexual harassment in the workplace in a Thursday report from CNN.
In one clip, Freeman asks ET correspondent Ashley Crossan if she is married as they sat down for an interview in 2016.
‘You fool around with older guys?’ Freeman asks when Crossan replies that she is unmarried. Crossan laughs but does not otherwise acknowledge the remark.
The second uncomfortable incident occurred in 2015, when ET special correspondent Janet Mock interviewed Freeman ahead of his film Five Flights Up.
ET correspondent Ashley Crossan (left) was stunned when Freeman (right) asked if she was married, and then followed up by asking if she liked to ‘fool around with older guys’
‘I don’t know how you all manage to do that all the time,’ Freeman says as Mock sits down to begin the interview.
‘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 said in a statement to ET about the incident: ‘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.’
Meanwhile, Freeman denied any wrongdoing in a new statement issued through his publicist on Friday night, Variety reported.
‘I am devastated that 80 years of my life is at risk of being undermined, in the blink of an eye, by Thursday’s media reports,’ Freeman said.
‘All victims of assault and harassment deserve to be heard. And we need to listen to them. But it is not right to equate horrific incidents of sexual assault with misplaced compliments or humor.
‘You got a dress halfway between your knee and your hips, and you sit down right across from me and you cross your legs,’ Freeman told a reporter in this 2015 interview
Reporter Janet Mock (above) said she was ‘deeply disappointed’ at Freeman’s remark to her
‘I admit that I am someone who feels a need to try to make women—and men—feel appreciated and at ease around me. As a part of that, I would often try to joke with and compliment women, in what I thought was a light-hearted and humorous way,’ the statement continued.
‘Clearly I was not always coming across the way I intended. And that is why I apologized Thursday and will continue to apologize to anyone I might have upset, however unintentionally,’ Freeman said, referring to his initial apology after the CNN report.
‘But I also want to be clear: I did not create unsafe work environments. I did not assault women. I did not offer employment or advancement in exchange for sex. Any suggestion that I did so is completely false,’ the actor said.
Freeman came under fire following the Thursday publication of CNN’s report, which cited eight women who claimed Freeman made inappropriate remarks or had tried to touch them inappropriately in the workplace.
Freeman came under fire following the Thursday publication of CNN’s report, which cited eight women who claimed Freeman behaved inappropriately in the workplace
The only named accuser in the report was its author, CNN reporter Chloe Melas.
Melas claims Freeman called her ‘ripe’ as she interviewed him while six months pregnant in 2017, and told her: ‘Boy I want to be there’ while ogling her.
Other women said he behaved like a ‘creepy uncle’ at Revelations Entertainment, his production company, and that his unwanted glances and treatment of them forced them to stop wearing skirts or dresses in the office.
In an initial statement on Thursday, Freeman told DailyMail.com: ‘Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy.
‘I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent.’