Tyler Perry is being sued for sexual assault by an actor from his long-running TV show, The Oval.
Law360 reports Derek Dixon is suing Perry for quid pro quo, workplace sexual harassment, and sexual assault and battery. He’s requesting $260 million in damages.
In his lawsuit, Dixon claims he met Perry in 2019 at an event where The Oval creator picked him out of a crowd and inquired about getting his phone number, making the suggestion that he could have a role for him. This would lead to him being cast in a small role on The Ruthless.
In 2020, Dixon claims that Tyler invited him to his home in Atlanta. The actor allegedly accepted, intending to build a friendship that would lead to more acting work. But in the lawsuit, Dixon claims that he got drunk, fell asleep in a guest room, and Perry hopped into his bed with him and began touching his thighs.
Dixon claims that he rejected Perry’s advances — yet the latter was still interested in him.
When Dixon landed the role of Dale in The Oval, he alleges that Perry began sending him sexually suggestive messages to inquire whether he was interested in men or not.
He also claims that Perry told him that he was seeking a real-life sexual partner who would be loyal and dependent to him, similar to Dale, who, in the show, is written as a gay store clerk who’s desperate to sleep with other characters.
Out of fear for his career, Dixon didn’t want to flat out reject Perry, so he told him that he wasn’t the “sexual type.”
Later in 2020, Dixon alleged that Perry initiated a sexually charged conversation that led to the latter grabbing him by the throat while saying to him, “Look how excited you just got.”
Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, alleges that the entire lawsuit is a “scam.” “This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” he said to TMZ. “But Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.