Derek Dixon, who recently sued Tyler Perry for sexual harassment, claimed that the media mogul threatened his role on The Oval if he didn’t endure the alleged behaviors.
“What [my character Dale getting shot] meant to me was if I don’t make him happy, I could stay dead on the show,” Dixon, 35, said during a Tuesday, September 9, appearance on ABC News. “To me, that was his way of showing his power over us and our careers. He doesn’t have a problem with killing one of us off.”
Dixon, who starred on BET’s The Oval from 2019 to 2024, alleged that he frequently received messages of harassment from Perry, 55, during his tenure on the TV show.
“I was extremely anxious. It got to a point where the calls and texts were almost every day,” he alleged. “[I was in] this constant state of, ‘If I don’t answer, I will lose my job. I’ll be fired or killed off the show.’ It took a huge toll on my anxiety and my depression.”
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Dixon named Perry in a $260 million lawsuit in June, accusing the showrunner of quid pro quo sexual harassment, sexual battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and retaliation. Perry vehemently denied the allegations through an attorney. (Us Weekly has reached out for comment.)
“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” Perry’s lawyer Matthew Boyd said in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday. “Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
Dixon, meanwhile, maintains his version of events and further alleged on Tuesday’s broadcast that Perry once groped him and said to “just go with it.”
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“In that moment, unless someone’s been through something where they have their control of their body taken away, you don’t really understand the kinds of feelings you get in that moment,” Dixon said. “It was almost, like, every thought came through my head to run, to fight [or] to freeze. I didn’t know what to do.”
Dixon claimed that Perry later apologized for his actions and promised to help produce Dixon’s self-written TV script.
“To me, it’s just so insulting,” Dixon claimed, adding that he continually reiterated how he wanted to de-escalate the situation. “[My pilot] hasn’t gone anywhere. He still owns the rights to it, so I can’t go anywhere [else] and sell it.”
Perry also previously alleged in a statement of his own that he was being extorted by Dixon with the lawsuit claims.
“I was looking for accountability for what he did,” Dixon said, denying the extortion allegations. “I think what he did was wrong, and it needed to be something that would deter him from doing it to someone else [or] another actor in the future.”
He continued, “Justice would look like thinking I’ve made a change, and something like this won’t happen to another actor that works for him or another actor in the industry. That would be justice for me.”
