Tyler Perry Hit With $260M Sex Assault Suit By ‘The Oval’ Actor Derek Dixon

Actor Derek Dixon has accused Tyler Perry of sexually harassing and assaulting him while he was a series regular on the media mogul’s political drama, “The Oval,” and then retaliating against Dixon when he didn’t reciprocate Perry’s unwanted advances, according to the actor’s $260 million lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.

 

When Dixon met Perry while working as an event staffer, Perry took a liking to him and offered the actor a chance to audition for a role in one of his TV productions, but it quickly became clear that if Dixon ignored Perry’s “aggressive” flirtation and sexual advances, Perry would “kill off” Dixon’s character on “The Oval,” according to the complaint filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

 

“Tyler Perry has been using his power and influence to molest, abuse, and sexually assault impressionable and vulnerable employees and actors who look to him for guidance and mentorship,” Dixon said.

 

Likening Perry to accused sexual predators Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, Dixon added, “Mr. Perry’s success has led him to believe that money and influence can get him whatever he wants.” That belief slowly transformed into the false idea that Mr. Perry can get whomever he wants. These are things in life that money cannot buy.”

 

Dixon claims Perry employs a pattern of offering aspiring actors “the prospect of career-defining opportunities” and then using the weight of his professional influence for sexual leverage, according to the suit.

 

Just days after meeting Dixon, Perry, in November 2019, offered Dixon a small role on his television series “Ruthless”, telling the actor there was a chance the role could get bigger, “thereby setting up the first stage in a series of escalating quid pro quo offers,” the suit stated.

 

About a month later, after Dixon filmed his role, Perry surprised him with a new car “because he hated Dixon’s Jeep”, and before long, Perry was frequently texting and calling the actor, according to the complaint. Dixon says he found this strange but “played along” in the hopes that Perry would help him succeed as an actor and screenwriter.

 

Then in January 2020, Perry invited Dixon to his home in Georgia for drinks, according to the complaint. Inebriated, Perry invited Dixon to stay the night in a guest room, but Dixon later felt someone get into the bed behind him and start rubbing his body “in a highly sexual and suggestive manner”, the suit stated. Turning around, Dixon says he saw Perry in the bed with him.

 

Dixon jumped out of the bed, repeatedly telling Perry he “‘wasn’t that sexual’” and wasn’t interested in sex, to keep Perry at bay while at the same time not insulting the person who was dangling his career in front of him,” according to the complaint.

When Dixon started ignoring him, Perry offered the actor the role of “Dale” in “The Oval”, according to the complaint. Dixon’s character was written as a “gay, homeless and desperate store clerk who had to sleep with one of the other characters for a place to stay,” the complaint stated.

Dixon, who hoped this would be his big break, accepted, but once Dixon quit his day job, Perry became more controlling, the suit states.

 

At the end of the show’s first season, Dixon’s character would be shot in the chest four times, and when the actor asked Perry about it, Perry told him that if Dixon did a “good job,” the character would survive and could appear in future seasons, the complaint states.

 

“Dixon immediately understood that his job security depended on his ‘relationship’ with Perry,” the suit stated. “From this point on, Dixon worked with the constant fear of losing his job if he did not engage with and endure Perry’s sexual harassment.”

 

When Dixon filmed the episode where his character is shot, Perry invited him to his trailer for drinks and “dialled up the harassment to a new level”, according to the complaint. Perry asked Dixon, “‘Are you attracted to me?’” but Dixon skirted the question by insisting he “‘wasn’t that sexual or looking for anything,’” the suit stated.

 

As Dixon was leaving the trailer, however, Perry pinned the actor against the wall and began groping his buttocks “in a strong and sexual manner that could not have been a mere accident”, the complaint stated.

 

“Dixon stood frozen in horror and could not reciprocate or fight back,” the suit said. “All Dixon could do was let his body go cold and limp. Seeing that Dixon had no desire in Perry, Perry told Dixon that he was ‘drunk’ and asked Dixon to leave the trailer.”

 

Dixon reported the incident to his friend, but says he didn’t know what else to do, lest he lose his job. The next day, Perry acted like nothing happened, the suit says.

 

But Perry eventually became even more frustrated and possessive, even becoming upset when he sent Dixon a photo of himself from the Bahamas and Dixon commented on the calm water rather than on what Perry looked like, according to the complaint. In the text exchange, “Perry called Dixon an ‘asshole’ for ‘laughing out loud’ at Perry’s desire for Dixon to call him a ‘stud,’” the suit stated.

 

Then in June 2021, Perry again invited Dixon to spend the night at his house under the guise of talking about Dixon’s script for a series called “Losing It,” according to the suit. But the pair became increasingly drunk, and Perry once again groped Dixon without consent, telling the actor to “just let it happen,” the complaint states. Dixon managed to extricate himself from the assault and the next day, Perry blamed it on his having too much to drink, the suit states.

 

After Dixon refused Perry’s offer of a yacht trip, Perry stopped texting for about five months, during which time Dixon regularly attended therapy sessions, according to the suit. And when Perry realized Dixon was not going to speak to him again, Perry’s “fixers” offered Dixon a raise for his role on “The Oval,” while warning him never to tell his castmates about the raise, the complaint states.

 

Knowing why he was getting the raise, Dixon said he “knew he could keep the money and the job or complain about the sexual harassment, but not both.”

 

But because he was afraid of losing his livelihood, Dixon took the offer and returned to shoot “The Oval,” while also accepting Perry’s offer to buy the rights to his “Losing It” series, according to the complaint. However, Perry had no intention of ever producing “Losing It,” and instead held it as a sword over Dixon’s head, the suit states.

 

After watching a video posted by Christian Keyes, another actor who worked for Perry, detailing abuse by “an anonymous ‘black Hollywood billionaire,’” whom Dixon believes to be Perry, Dixon says he filed a sexual harassment complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

 

But when Perry’s company, TPS Production Services, and And Action LLC did nothing, Dixon quit the last season of “The Oval,” where he stood to make about $400,000, the suit states.

 

Dixon’s suit asserts claims for quid pro quo sexual harassment, work environment harassment, sexual harassment, workplace gender violence, sexual battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and retaliation, among other things.

 

The suit seeks $260 million in damages, injunctive relief, attorney fees and litigation costs.

 

Source: Law360