Here’s an account from one woman who worked with Freeman on the 2015 film Going in Style:
She alleges that Freeman subjected her to unwanted touching and comments about her figure and clothing on a near-daily basis. Freeman would rest his hand on her lower back or rub her lower back, she said.
In one incident, she said, Freeman “kept trying to lift up my skirt and asking if I was wearing underwear.” He never successfully lifted her skirt, she said—he would touch it and try to lift it, she would move away, and then he’d try again. Eventually, she said, “Alan [Arkin] made a comment telling him to stop. Morgan got freaked out and didn’t know what to say.”
Another woman working production for 2012’s Now You See Me remembers similar behavior from Freeman. “He did comment on our bodies. …We knew that if he was coming by…not to wear any top that would show our breasts, not to wear anything that would show our bottoms, meaning not wearing clothes that [were] fitted,” she told CNN.
CNN also included the account of one of its entertainment reporters, Chloe Melas, who co-authored the piece. Melas alleges she was harassed while interviewing Freeman at a press junket for Going in Style. Here’s her account below:
According to Melas, who was six months pregnant at the time, Freeman, in a room full of people, including his co-stars Arkin and Caine, shook Melas’ hand, not letting go while repeatedly looking her up and down and saying more than once a variation of, “I wish I was there.” She says he also said to her, “You are ripe.” Cameras were on and recording during one of Freeman’s remarks to Melas—”Boy, do I wish I was there”—but not for the rest. As is common practice with such junkets, Melas was the only CNN employee there at the time.
These are just a few of the 16 accounts of harassment shared in CNN’s new piece. The story also details the “toxic” work environment of Freeman’s company Revelations Entertainment, which he co-founded with Lori McCreary in 1996. “[He’d say] things like ‘I’d like to have an hour with her’ or make vulgar and sexual comments about women,” one former employee told CNN. “He would be verbally inappropriate and it was just shocking. You’re more shocked than anything because it’s hard to have the wherewithal to say to him ‘That’s inappropriate.’ You’re just like ‘Whoa.’ It’s hard because on any set he is the most powerful person on it. It’s weird because you just don’t expect it from Morgan Freeman, someone who you respect.”
Freeman is best known for his famous voice acting and roles in Million Dollar Baby,Shawshank Redemption, and countless others.
Article Appeared @http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/05/multiple-women-accuse-morgan-freeman-of-sexual-harassment-misconduct