Mark Anthony Neal knew Jonathan Majors was in serious trouble.
The chair of Duke University's African and African American studies department was stunned last March when he heard that Majors had been accused of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend, actress Grace Jabbari.
Like legions of fans and critics impressed by Majors' muscular performances in “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” “Creed III,” HBO's “Lovecraft Country” and other projects, Neal feared it would be a surprising setback for a talented black actor who seemed to be on the verge of revolutionary stardom. And, given the long history of racist tropes about black male sexuality in the United States, he knew the case would be colored by the fact that Jabbari is white.
“My immediate response was, 'It's over,'” Neal said in a phone interview last month. “It was a bad look, considering not only the culture in general but also thinking about how African Americans would respond. I felt it would be difficult for him to cope.”
After his arrest, Majors had already suffered serious damage to his career, losing his management and public relations company, as well as advertising campaigns with the US military and the Texas Rangers baseball team. But the fallout after a New York jury found him guilty in December on two of four counts was particularly swift and brutal. Disney fired Majors from his role as supervillain Kang the Conqueror in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was cut from a film about basketball star Dennis Rodman. And “Magazine Dreams,” which had sparked initial Oscar buzz for Majors after premiering at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, is in limbo after being dropped by distributor Searchlight Pictures.
Still, as Majors faces sentencing in the case on Tuesday, Neal and others say it is the actor's post-conviction behavior that has hurt him the most, casting doubt on his ability to repair his reputation once his legal troubles subside. have been left behind.
Those missteps, along with his decision to remain in what he described as an “unhealthy” relationship while his career was booming, have clouded optimism among his fans that Major could regain at least some of his former traction in Hollywood.
“Jonathan made a bad situation worse: one public relations failure after another,” said Nathan Miller, founder and CEO of Miller Ink, a crisis management and strategic communications company based in Los Angeles.
Andrew Bourke, director of communications for ChaudhryLaw PLLC, declined the Times' request for comment by Majors' attorney, Priya Chaudhry.
Many critics of Majors cite an ABC News interview in January in which the actor, who did not take the stand during his trial, awkwardly maintained his innocence while declaring that he was the real victim. He has been criticized for his unstable behavior and evasive responses. Asked how Jabbari's injuries, which were photographed by police, occurred, Majors said: “I wish I knew.”
“That interview greatly undermined his credibility,” Miller said. “There are ways to deny that you committed physical assault but also to recognize the complexities of the situation that demonstrate responsibility. The public doesn't like it when they think someone is being evasive and become a victim.”
The interview also included an audio clip played in court in which Majors described himself as a “great man” while accusing Jabbari of not living up to the standards set by the wives of famous black men, such as Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama.
“When he appears on television and essentially compares himself to a Martin Luther King who needs a Coretta, it suggests how disconnected he is from what's happening to him right now,” Neal said.
Veteran publicist and entertainment director Ramón Hervey II added: “That interview was a really serious mistake. It was irrelevant because he was already convicted. It was also ill-timed: it was not going to change public perception of him at a time when he really needed to stay away from the media and wait for his sentencing.”
Present during the interview was Majors' current girlfriend, actress Meagan Good, who stars in the Amazon comedy “Harlem” and was at Majors' side during the court process. Speculation swirled around the couple, with some observers suggesting the relationship was a setup to boost support for Majors among black fans.
“This is a travesty,” Natasha Scott-Reichel declared during a segment of the pop culture podcast “2 Black Girls, 1 Rose,” which she hosts with her best friend Justine Kay. “Why are you trying to get us in the black community to support you? Nobody He is supporting you, brother.”
Neal added: “There was clearly a fixer-upper trying to get him out of this situation with the black community. He appears to be a black actor who was not particularly interested in black women.”
A representative for Good did not respond to The Times' request for comment.
Despite the backlash, Majors continues to put up a positive front. When a TMZ reporter confronted him on the street last week and asked how he was doing, Majors smiled and said, “God is good, God is great,” adding that he feels strengthened by prayer and faith.
Majors and Jabbari clashed during a car ride on March 24 after she read a romantic text message sent to his phone from another woman. Prosecutors alleged that Majors grabbed Jabbari's hand so hard that he fractured her middle finger and also hit her face with his open hand and pushed her into a vehicle.
Although Majors could receive up to a year in prison at the time of his sentencing for third-degree reckless assault of Jabbari and second-degree harassment, experts predict he is unlikely to find himself behind bars, especially since he has no prior criminal convictions. .
The court of public opinion may be less lenient.
“If his people thought they could create a change in his public image, they miscalculated,” Hervey said, citing the ABC News interview. “They created another situation in which he could be tried, prosecuted and evaluated. He did not fulfill what he intended.”
Kay, of the “2 Black Girls, 1 Rose” podcast, said Majors’ comments about Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama were offensive and alienating to the black community, very disappointing given her previous admiration for Majors.
“I was kind of such a big fan that I thought, 'He's supposed to be my husband,'” Kay joked in a phone interview. “I thought he was a great actor. “I saw him in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ where he played Kang, and he really stood out in a very bad movie.”
She continued: “A big part of the reason Jonathan rose that way is because a lot of black women supported him. So using black women in a historical context as support is not going to work well for him.”
Race may also be a factor in whether the Majors can come back and what shape it might take.
Hollywood insiders say Majors is likely to face more obstacles than Mel Gibson, who for several years was considered damaged goods in the industry after he was recorded making anti-Semitic comments during a 2006 arrest for driving under the influence in Malibu. . The Oscar winner also pleaded no contest in 2011 to a misdemeanor charge of spousal battery, among other controversies that have damaged his reputation.
However, after keeping a lower profile for years, Gibson, with the support of big stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Jodie Foster, has returned and received an Oscar nomination for directing “Hacksaw Ridge” in 2017 and for directing Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Dockery. in an upcoming thriller, “Flight Risk.” Gibson also played a prominent role in last year's “John Wick” spinoff TV series, “The Continental,” and is said to be working on a sequel to his controversial 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ.”
Majors' trajectory could end up more closely mirroring that of Nate Parker, a black actor and director. Parker's career was on the rise after his 2016 film, “The Birth of a Nation,” which he wrote, directed and starred in, won top awards at the Sundance Film Festival. But he soon became embroiled in scandal when the story resurfaced that he and his co-writer, his Penn State roommate Jean McGianni Celestin, had been accused in 1999 of raping a college freshman who She alleged that she was intoxicated and unconscious at the time. Both men stated that the encounter was consensual.
Parker was acquitted in 2001 after testifying that he had previously had consensual sexual relations with the woman. Celestin was initially convicted of sexual assault, but that verdict was overturned in 2005 when he was granted a mistrial on the grounds that his attorney was ineffective. The case was dropped a year later when prosecutors could not gather enough witnesses to testify at a new trial. The woman took her own life in 2012.
Despite directing and appearing in 2019's “American Skin,” Parker's career never recovered.
With Majors' sentence expected to be light, observers say, there is a path for actor Majors to resurrect his reputation, even in the absence of public support from his former celebrity collaborators.
“Jonathan is only 34 years old; this is not the nail in his coffin,” Hervey said. “If he gets away with a slap, he needs to get away from public life. If he was involved, he would silence him for being a target and pay a personal penance.”
But Miller warned that the actor will have to face a reality check.
“People in Hollywood have come back from worse things, but I warn people in this situation that they will not be able to go back to square one,” he said. “The question is whether Jonathan has the insight to speak honestly about what happened and take some responsibility. He has to be willing to convey to the public what you have learned and grown.”
