Actor Jason Mitchell is shedding light on the MeToo movement and how he feels it played a significant role in his departure from Showtime’s hit series The Chi.
For context, the MeToo movement, founded nearly a decade ago by Tarana Burke, brings awareness to those affected by sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sexual abuse in the workplace. The movement gained recognition in recent years due to many high-profile stars speaking out, and the various allegations against defamed film producer Harvey Weinstein.
In an interview with VladTV, Mitchell –who was accused of sexual misconduct in 2019 by his co-star Tiffany Boone and The Chi’s showrunner Ayanna Floyd Davis, revealed that at the time his sexual misconduct allegations were being released to the public, he felt that Davis weaponized “the whole situation” because of how widely popular the MeToo movement became.
Although the exact details regarding Mitchell’s allegations are unclear, the 36-year-old claimed that he supports the movement and the justice it has brought to many but disclosed that his situation was a bit different because there was no police involvement and “nobody came out and had a story.” The Straight Outta Compton star said,
“She [Ayanna Floyd Davis] definitely did weaponize the whole situation because at that point it was like a witch hunt. MeToo was at the height of everything. Let’s be honest, they do have some monsters out here. They have people who use their position as leverage… For me, nobody ever came out and had a story. The police were never involved.”
Further into the discussion, Mitchell stated that when the sexual misconduct allegations came out, he thought it would “go away” and the public would forget about it because of the lack of evidence provided by Boone and Davis. Still, when Mitchell was fired from The Chi that same year, and his character Brandon was killed off in the season two finale, he admitted it was a challenging experience and feels he still has a “negative shade” because of the allegations. He added
“A part of me thought I guess that the public would’ve used their common sense be like ‘hey if the police get [involved]. Or if no female came out and made a statement against him,’ it would kind of just go away. It wasn’t like that. It was tough. I still feel, I’m in this negative shade sometimes with this dark cloud but I’m like ‘you know what I’m not going go let that jade me or take me away from the space I feel like I should be in.'”
Toward the end of his interview, Mitchell explained that although he made a mistake in the past, he feels that he deserves to “be in this space” because God gave him the gift of acting.
“I feel like I definitely deserve to be here. God gave me a great gift and I deserve to be in this space. Did I make a mistake? Yes, but who’s perfect?”
At this time, Davis and Boone have yet to respond to Mitchell’s latest remarks.