Jonathan Majors clings to the hand that sent him away.
The actor, whose career soared with several acclaimed film and television performances and a central role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is finally speaking out after a New York jury found him guilty last month of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend. actress Grace Jabbari. Hours after the jury’s verdict, he was fired by Disney, which owns Marvel.
In a rare turn of reputation rehabilitation, Majors, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence, gave an exclusive interview about his recent troubles to ABC News, which is also owned by Disney.
Typically, a celebrity on a redemption tour would seek exposure somewhere other than the one that left them.
During the interview, which aired Monday on “Good Morning America,” Majors, who will be sentenced in February and could receive up to a year in prison, became emotional as he gave his account of the physical confrontation during a March 24 drive-in. ride that led to his arrest the next day.
At one point, he said he felt he could still have a future in Hollywood: “I pray I do. “It is God’s plan and God’s timing.” Despite the conviction, she said he felt he deserved a second chance. “I hope other people think that.”
Prosecutors, who described the couple’s relationship as “tumultuous and abusive,” said Majors assaulted Jabbari after she read a romantic text message sent to his phone by another woman. Majors allegedly grabbed Jabbari’s hand so hard that he fractured her middle finger and also allegedly hit her face with his open hand and pushed her into a vehicle. She was hospitalized for minor injuries.
Introducing the segment, host Linsey Davis said Majors described her two-year relationship with Jabbari as “toxic, dangerous and unhealthy,” but that there was absolutely no physical abuse on his part. The couple met in 2021 on the set of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” where he played the villain Kang the Conqueror.
He said he was speaking out now because “a lot has happened in my personal life, my career and the culture.” At times she wiped away her tears and said that she had not seen her daughter for a long time: “It has a lot to do with this situation.”
Wearing a dark gray coat and black turtleneck, Majors added that he was “absolutely shocked” by the verdict: “How is that possible based on the evidence, the prosecution’s evidence, let alone our evidence? ”.
His lawyer Priya Chaudhry had argued that Jabbari fabricated the incident. Chaudhry maintained that his client’s race (Majors is black, Jabbari is white) played a role in his arrest, and that Jabbari’s accusations were part of his efforts to “ruin Jonathan Majors and take away everything he has worked so hard for.” his life”.
Questioning Majors, Davis said: “[Jabarri] “She said inside the car that you hit her in the face, twisted her arm behind her back and fractured her middle finger.”
“That didn’t happen,” said Majors, who did not take the stand during the trial.
He went on to say, “She went to grab the phone. I held the phone. I took the phone away, she came on top of me, pressed my face and slapped me. That’s all I remember.”
Asked how Jabbari’s injuries, which were photographed by police, occurred, Majors paused before saying: “I wish I knew. “That would give me clarity, it would give me some kind of peace about it.”
The jury found Majors guilty of recklessly assaulting Jabbari in the third degree and harassing her in the second degree. Majors said in the interview that she “was reckless with her heart, not her body.” She said she loved Jabbari, but that the relationship “wasn’t healthy” and that she “should have walked away.”
Another part of the interview concerned an audio clip played in court where the actor criticized Jabbari for not living up to the standards set by the wives of famous black men, such as Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama.
“I am a great man. A great man,” Majors said in the recording. “I am doing great things, not only for myself but for my culture and for the world. Actually, that’s the position I find myself in. The woman who supports me must be a great woman.”
Majors said of the recording: “It was me giving an analogy of what I aspire to be. … I need her to make the same sacrifices that I’m making.”
During the trial, prosecutors also presented text messages in which Majors had expressed suicidal thoughts: “Maybe I’m such a monster and such a horrible man that I don’t deserve it.”
During the interview he admitted to having had suicidal thoughts since he was a child, but that those feelings no longer existed because he was “doing the work” to keep them at bay.
Present during the interview was actress Meagan Good (“Harlem”), Majors’ new girlfriend, who also accompanied him every day in court.
It remains to be seen whether the televised interview will save Majors’ career. In addition to being scrapped by Marvel, its 2023 Sundance competition film, “Magazine Dreams,” which had sparked early Oscar buzz, remains unreleased.
