A former longtime regular on Tyler Perry‘s White House drama The Oval is accusing the Madea star of sexual assault, sexual harassment and retaliation in a $260 million lawsuit — claims that Perry vehemently denies.
“Using his influence, Mr. Perry provided vulnerable men with acting positions, roles, show contracts, cars, and money,” a lawyer for Derek Dixon says of Perry’s M.O. to their client and others in the 10-claim complaint filed June 13 in Los Angeles Superior Court. “Once the object of his desire was hooked, Tyler Perry would then put them in fear of losing it all unless they engaged in Mr. Perry’s perverted desire for sexual gratification. Mr. Perry would easily ‘kill off’ a character in a show of an actor who failed to indulge Perry’s sexual fantasies.”
Invoking the names of “Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Sean ‘P-Diddy’ Combs, Kevin Spacey, Roger Ailes, and many others in the industry,” Dixon’s action details how allegedly “on multiple occasions, Mr. Perry sexually assaulted Mr. Dixon, including one instance where he forcibly pulled off Mr. Dixon’s clothing, groped his buttocks, and attempted to force himself on Dixon.”
In response, Perry’s representatives call BS on Dixon and his accusations.
“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” said Matthew Boyd, attorney for the mogul and his TPS Production Services, LLC. “But Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
Such claims of harassment by Dixon are very specific and widespread at the same time, it should be noted.
For instance, at one point Dixon says Perry promised the actor that he had “greenlit” the “pilot that Perry knew Mr. Dixon had desperately wanted to produce.” The Oval vet says that even with a call from one of Perry’s lawyers affirming that the pilot was moving ahead, the promise turned out to be empty. In a format reminiscent of the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni lawsuits, text messages — some more suggestive than others — pepper the 46-page filing from L.A. attorney Jonathan J. Delshad. Included is at least one from an October 2020 trip the two and others took to the Bahamas, where Dixon claims Perry got loaded and assaulted him, again.
The filing also notes that Perry supposedly repeatedly threatened “that if Dixon ignored Perry or failed to engage with the sexual innuendos, Dixon’s character would ‘die’ in the next season.” It goes on to add: “Indeed, Dixon’s character ‘Dale’ was shot four times in the chest at the end of his first season on The Oval and Perry always held this over Mr. Dixon’s head, implying that ‘Dale’ would survive if Dixon kept Perry ‘happy.’”
According to Dixon, after he complained about Perry’s alleged misconduct and “Defendants did not make any investigation into the complaint and did not take any steps to prevent further harassment from occurring,” he “had to quit his job working on the last season of The Oval.” Dixon and his attorneys claim that decision cost him around $400,000 in lost wages.
“Dixon did not want to be sexually harassed or be placed in danger of a sexual assault again,” the filing states as his reason for leaving the show and giving up the money.
The Oval debuted on October 23, 2019, on BET, and saw its sixth season kick off on January 25 this year. A Ruthless spinoff premiered on BET+ on March 19, 2020.
