“My absolute fear is that he will be able to continue doing this” — Derek Dixon breaks silence after suing Tyler Perry for alleged s*xual harassment

Derek Dixon, who accused actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry of s*xual harassment, opened up about the lawsuit in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter on July 10.

During the interview, Dixon reflected on the question of sorting out the issue before taking legal means, saying:

“There are always attempts to resolve situations like this privately, but they never result in the type of change necessary to protect further victims. At the end of the day my absolute fear is that he will be able to continue doing this without any major consequences.”

The lawsuit, valued at $260 million, was filed in Los Angeles last month. During the interview, Derek Dixon said he felt compelled to bring the issue to light as everybody should be able to go to their workplaces without their bosses s*xually harassing them.

In the lawsuit, he mentioned several such instances. On one occasion, Tyler Perry allegedly threw him against the wall and attempted to touch him inappropriately.

Dixon alleged that in 2020, they attended a celebration and had booze. After deciding to stay at a guest house, Tyler allegedly got into Dixon’s bed and rubbed his feet. Disturbed by this, Derek Dixon said he wasn’t interested and waited for Perry to leave the room.

Meanwhile, Tyler Perry’s legal representative, Matthew Boyd, said the allegations in the lawsuit were untrue. Dixon said:

“I’m not going to speak for him on how he identifies s*xually. Regardless of his s*xual orientation or gender, he should not be speaking to any of his employees whether they be men or women, gay, straight or bisexual about their s*xual preferences.”

What did Derek Dixon say about the texts Tyler Perry allegedly sent him?

Following the 2020 incident, Dixon said Perry attempted to reach out to him multiple times, but Dixon ignored him. Later, Perry gave Derek Dixon a role in The Oval, a previous character from Ruthless. He got on a call with Tyler Perry to discuss how his role would unfold. Remembering the conversation, Dixon said:

“He said that if I did a good job, I’d probably survive.”

During the same call, Derek Dixon shared that Perry mentioned feeling like he was always giving but never received anything in return. Dixon said hearing this made him feel uneasy, as he realized that upsetting Perry could easily lead to his character being permanently removed from the show.

After getting the role, Dixon said Tyler Perry tried to contact him more. He mentioned:

“It was always personal and almost never about business. He would say ‘send pics’ of what I was doing or ask to see a photo shoot that I just did.”

Once, Derek Dixon wrote a comedy script that Tyler Perry found amusing and decided to film the opening episode. The actor said:

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“I couldn’t believe he actually liked it, much less wanted to shoot the pilot for it. It was one of the best things to ever happen to me at the time.”

Dixon remembered that the type of messages Tyler sent him were about his body. He mentioned another incident when Perry called him to his dressing van. After he went, the filmmaker allegedly asked him questions that Dixon found disturbing.

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