Actor Derek Dixon details Tyler Perry sexual assault allegations in first on-camera interview

Actor Derek Dixon, who is suing media mogul Tyler Perry over allegations of sexual assault and harassment, has detailed his claims in an on-screen interview for the first time.

Dixon, who appeared in Perry’s long-running political drama The Oval and its spin-off Ruthless, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles back in June, in which he claimed Perry used his “success and power [and] considerable influence in the entertainment industry to create a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic”.

In the complaint, Dixon said he was promised “career advancements” by Perry only to “subject him to escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation when Mr Dixon did not reciprocate Mr Perry’s unwanted advances”.

Dixon is seeking $260 million (approx. £192,00,000) in damages.

Perry has denied the allegations, with his attorney Matthew Boyd stating: “This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam. But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”

Speaking to ABC News in his first on-screen interview about the allegations, Dixon told the broadcaster’s Linsey Davis that he previously stayed at Perry’s home in Atlanta and whilst there the media mogul “climbed into bed” with him.

“I jumped up out of bed. He said, ‘Turn around so I can look at you,’ and just commented on how I looked. And he got up and left,” Dixon claimed in the interview, adding he thought he made it “pretty clear” he was “not interested” in any sort of relationship.

“It’s okay that people try to make a move or shoot their shot, but if they get rejected I think that they should stop. I thought it would stop after that and it didn’t,” Dixon said.

He went on to claim that after a night of drinking with Perry at his home in Atlanta at a later date Perry “pulled my underwear down and grabbed my ass”.

Dixon said when they were returning to the guest area, where he had stayed before, he noticed a health monitor scale and asked what it was and Perry allegedly responded: “Well you have to be in your underwear to measure”.

“He reached down and pulled my underwear down and grabbed my ass and I tried to stop him and pull back my underwear up,” Dixon recounted.

“He kind of grabbed my arms and said, ‘No no no, it’s okay. Just go with it.’ And I said, ‘Stop, I don’t want to be naked. I don’t want this.’ And he said, ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’”

“Unless someone’s been through something where they have their control over their body taken away, you don’t really understand the kind of feelings that you get in that moment,” Dixon continued.

“Every thought came into my head: to run, to fight, to freeze. I didn’t know what to do.”

Dixon also claimed he feared professional retaliation if he did not reciprocate Perry’s advances or reply to text messages which were sexual in nature.

He cited that the send of the second season of The Oval, his character was several times and this made him realise “if I don’t make him happy, I could stay dead on the show” and this was Perry’s way of “showing power over us and our careers”.

“I was extremely anxious,” he said. “The calls and texts were almost everyday. This constant state of, ‘If I don’t answer, I will lose my job. I will be fired or killed off the show.’ It took a huge toll on my anxiety and depression.”