NEW YORK (AP) ā Throughout the implosion of his once-skyrocketing Hollywood career, from to his harassment and assault conviction, has maintained that he has never struck a woman.
But on Monday, as Majors was in the midst of a comeback attempt and a PR push that returned him to magazine covers, Rolling Stone published an audio recording of a conversation between Majors and Grace Jabbari. Majors was found guilty of one misdemeanor assault charge and one harassment violation in the head with an open hand and breaking her middle finger by squeezing it.
āI aggressed you,ā Majors acknowledges in the recording, confirming her description of him strangling her and pushing her against a car. The recording appeared to contradict Majorsā previous claims and upend his redemption tour just as opens in theaters Friday.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Majors declined to address the recording, and whether he has assaulted women.
āI canāt answer that,ā Majors responded. āI canāt speak to that.ā
Majors says he's changed, but not everyone is convinced
Majors, who was sentenced to probation and in November, is striving for an unusually swift rebound following a precipitous downfall. Before his March 2023 arrest, Majors was steering toward and a possible Oscar nomination for Elijah Bynumās āMagazine Dreams,ā in which he plays a disturbed aspiring bodybuilder prone to violent outbursts.
Two years later, Majors returns to the public eye with a pledge that heās changed just months after completing a year of At the same time, he's not directly addressing any of the allegations against him ā including those from two previous partners, Emma Duncan and Maura Hooper, who in statements submitted pretrial, detailed physically violent and emotionally abusive incidents that bear some similarities to the Jabbari case.
āItās not something I can talk about legally,ā Majors says. āI said to my wife the other day, Iāve changed. I donāt recognize myself. I donāt recognize that guy. Iām in a completely different place. Thereās no doubt that I was in turmoil. That guy then didnāt have any tools to deal with things. I donāt know if I liked the guy then. He was accomplished, he was doing great things in certain ways. But I donāt know if I would have hung out with him.ā
Majors, who sat for an interview at a Manhattan hotel without a publicist present, spoke reflectively about his experience of the past two years ā with the exception of anything specifically related to the conviction, the additional abuse allegations or the women who say he harmed them. Despite never naming a misdeed, Majors says he is reformed.
āIād say to anyone who cares to listen: Iāve had two years of deep thought and mediation and rumination on myself and my actions, my community, my industry,ā he said. āIām stronger now. Iām wiser now. Iām better now.ā
Not everyone is convinced. Hooper, who met Majors at Yale Drama School and dated him from 2013 to 2015, described a traumatizing and controlling relationship. A year after their relationship ended, Majors learned of her having a relationship with someone he knew, she said. According to Hooper's statement, Majors called her and shamed her for having an abortion, which he had encouraged, and told her to kill herself.
āThe level of anger that I experienced from this man, I donāt know you exorcise that from your life or your behavior in only 52 weeks,ā Hooper told the AP. āPeople go to therapy for years. I went to therapy for years after Jonathan Majors just to get my mind back.ā
Hooper and Duncan's statements were ultimately not allowed as evidence during the trial, but they remain public record. Attorneys for Majors have denied some of their claims, describing both relationships as ātoxic.ā
Duncan, who dated and was engaged to Majors from 2015 to 2019, described at least eight physical or threatening encounters in her statement. During an argument in 2016 while driving in Chautauqua, New York, he threatened to strangle and kill her, she said. At a spa in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she discovered text messages between Majors and another woman and began packing to leave. He pushed her into couch and began choking her while saying he was going to kill her, Duncan said. (She didn't respond to an email from the AP seeking comment. Attorneys for Jabbari also didn't respond to emails.)
āThere is a documented history of 10 years of abuse of women where he calls women āsluts,ā he calls us āfat whores,ā he tells us to kill ourselves,ā Hooper says. āWhen I hear people say, āCome on, how come he canāt come back into the fold?ā I donāt know that those people have read this or understand that weāre talking about a pattern.ā
Another test of #MeToo in Hollywood
A changed political climate and several recent cases, including the have suggested Hollywood has entered a new chapter in the #MeToo movement. Majors' attempted comeback is one of the most conspicuous tests to the fraying curbs of cancellation and #MeToo vindication.
āWeāre suffering a period of tremendous political retrenchment and backlash in this movement,ā says who represented Christine Blasey Ford, accuser of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, along with Weinstein accusers. āMuch of what weāve fought for seems to be on the line.ā
But women are still coming forward, and Katz believes companies and industries will hold the accused accountable. For his part, Majors, who was has no new films announced. āMagazine Dreams,ā which debuted at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival before his arrest and was subsequently dropped by Searchlight Pictures, is being the indie distributor
āJonathan made a mistake. There was due process. Justice was served. And then we move on, which I think is generally how we like to think this country operates,ā Tom Ortenberg, chief executive of Briarcliff, said Thursday. āWeāre faced with two choices: Should āMagazine Dreamsā be allowed to be seen? Or should we burn the negative?ā
Numerous A-listers, including Michael B. Jordan and Matthew McConaughey, have advocated for Majorsā return to Hollywood. Still, Katz believes Majorsā comeback will ultimately sputter because it hasnāt gone beyond the strategy of what she describes as āget a good PR firm and show my soft side.ā
āI think heās going to suffer a significant comeuppance,ā says Katz. āHe hasnāt owned up to the behavior. He hasnāt apologized. The only thing he appears to be sorry about is that he got caught.ā
Majors' past, and where he goes next
For Majors, his self-examination has focused more on an earlier experience he suggests was at the root of what he calls his turmoil.
āThere was a lot of trauma that was piled up and ignored. The best way to describe it is it as an energy that unfortunately was there,ā says Majors. āI was feeding the wrong wolf. And that wolf became unignorable. And I was really good at moving fast and outrunning the rabid wolf of trauma. The best thing that could have happened to me ā not to my career but to me ā was to have to face it.ā
Majors, who was raised by his pastor mother in Texas after his father left, says from the age of 9 to about 13, he was the victim of multiple incidents of sexual abuse, from, he says, ātwo male family members and my sistersā friends who were older than me ā they were older than her.ā
āIt felt like kids being kids and then it became something different very quickly,ā Majors says. āAnd then it became a pattern.ā
Majors only recently began wrestling with this past, he says, working through it in therapy and in conversations with his family. A phone call with his sister, he says, reawakened memories.
āIt was an experience that I just killed in my head,ā Majors says, tearing up.
āItās not a boo-hoo-bro, so-sad-for-you situation,ā he says, wiping away tears. āItās life. Itās the hand youāre dealt, and I didnāt know how to play those cards. Iām learning how to play those cards.ā
Now, Majors says, heās never been happier. On Tuesday, were wed in a small, impromptu ceremony in Los Angeles officiated by his mother. āWe called the family and said, āHey, jump on FaceTime,āā he says, calling it the best day of his life.
āMagazine Dreams,ā he thought, would never see the light of day. Now, though, heās hopeful
āI now understand that acting is in many ways my ministry. Itās in many ways my calling,ā Majors says. āIf itās not, Iām waiting for someone to tell me itās not. Iām waiting for God to tell me itās not. Heās not said that.ā
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
