Jonathan Majors skips testifying to go straight to weepy post-verdict interviews
Jonathan Majors never took the stand during his domestic violence trial. Now, on TV, he professes his innocence
Aux News Jonathan Majors
If you had to guess, why do you think Jonathan Majors’ team declined to put him on the stand during his domestic trial but did put him on television before his sentencing? On ABC (a subsidiary of Disney, a company from which Majors was recently fired) there is no cross-examination; there is no swearing on the Bible (a book Majors conspicuously carried around with him the entire trial) to tell nothing but the truth. There’s just an actor—a very good actor—getting to tell his version of events, almost entirely unfettered and in dramatic fashion. In his first interview since being accused of abuse by ex Grace Jabbari, Majors cries, Majors denies, Majors promises to appeal the guilty verdict for reckless assault. “I was reckless with her heart, not with her body,” he proclaims, because of course he does.
The contents of Majors’ interview on Good Morning America are entirely unsurprising. Majors regrets trying to put Jabbari back in the car. Majors regrets not breaking up with Jabbari sooner, because then he wouldn’t have been in the car with her in the first place. Majors claims he never hit Jabbari or any woman ever. So how did Jabbari get the injuries for which she was treated after their altercation? “I wish to god I knew. That would give clarity. That would give me some type of peace about it,” he says (via ABC News).
The New York District Attorney’s office presented damning evidence of the context of the couple’s relationship, painting a portrait of Majors that was controlling and emotionally abusive. Text messages regarding Jabbari’s injuries from a prior incident showed Majors discouraging her from seeking medical help, implying previous violence in the relationship, but the actor claims those injuries were fake. “I received these text messages and I was like, ‘This is literally a nightmare.’ I don’t know what’s wrong. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what injuries you’re talking about,” he says. As for telling her not to go to the hospital: “From my experience, from my point of view, a young Black man in any situation with anyone honestly, if the authorities get involved in any way, there’s going to be conversation, conflict, trauma.”
Conflict already existed in the relationship, as evidenced by the bizarre recording played in court of a belligerent Majors lecturing Jabbari about how he’s a “great man” and that she should support him more like Coretta Scott King or Michelle Obama. “It was me trying to give an analogy of what it is I’m aspiring to be, you know, these great men—Martin, President Obama—and trying to give a reference point to that. I need her, in that case, Grace, to make the same sacrifices I am making,” Majors explains now. “I was attempting, and I did a terrible job at it apparently, I was attempting to motivate, to enlighten, to give perspective as in to what it is I was hoping to get out of the relationship.” (His current girlfriend, actor Meagan Good, has “held me down like Coretta,” he adds later, so dreams do come true.)
Majors hopes for a second chance in Hollywood, but for now, “Everything has kinda gone away. And it’s just me now, you know, and my lovely, you know, partner, Meagan, and my dogs,” he says. He hasn’t seen his daughter since the case began; “the world stopped” when he lost the role of Kang the Conqueror at Marvel Studios. Disney, meanwhile, is heavily cashing in on its former employee, airing the interview on Good Morning America, additional segments on GMA3, an extended version on the ABC News Live program Prime, and another half-hour special with more unaired material on IMPACT x Nightline on January 11 (per The Hollywood Reporter).
For now, Majors says he was “shocked and afraid” upon hearing the guilty verdict. But Grace Jabbari’s legal team says, “His denigration of our jury system is not dissimilar from the above-the-law attitude that he has maintained throughout this legal process” in a statement to ABC News. “The timing of these new statements demonstrates a clear lack of remorse for the actions for which he was found guilty and should make the sentencing decisions fairly easy for the Court.”
66 Comments
Between mcafee and this, how the hell is disney not aware enough to prevent own goals like this?
Golly! Look at all those crocodile tears!
If he wants a shot at a career again he needs to just admit it, do his time (or whatever the sentence ends up being), go to inpatient therapy, and conspicuously take his L. Continuing to deny it is not going to help him. His handlers aren’t doing him any favors with this.
The reality is things like this follow black men for the rest of there lives. Maybe people think Chris Brown could do a better job of owning up to his abuse and showing he’s changed, but he has addressed it, and admitted fault for it. Yet people lost their minds when he was at the 2012 Grammy’s despite there seemingly being no issue handing Glen Campbell an award despite his well-documented domestic violence against Tonya Tucker.
Right or wrong, Majors will have to face this any time he tries to do something going forward. Redemption and a future career is reserved for white people like Mel Gibson.
chris brown’s career was more successful after he beat up rihanna. he literally sold more records after than before.
Brown runs his own label, so can release his own material. Is Majors going to start running his own studio?
well my point was that comparing the two doesn’t make any sense.RCA released brown’s follow-up albums. he got a little shade in the public eye but his career never took a break. like i said he was more successful than ever after the fact.majors has neither that amount of public support nor was he anywhere near as successful beforehand. if your point is just ‘two black men beat up women, reactions were different’ then sure. i agree.
I’m not comparing Brown to Majors. I’m comparing how Brown was treated when he was part of the 2012 Grammys versus how Campbell was treated, despite the fact that both were perpetrators of domestic violence against partners, and using that to illustrate the point that black men are very often treated differently than white men both on how these instances impact their careers, and what sort of “redemption” is possible in the public ever at large.
I’m betting Majors will have a much tougher time than, say, Depp or Gibson in recovering from this all in terms of a future career. Honestly, I’m not really looking to defend Majors, and he seems to be a guy with issues based on what else has come out, but I was responding to the specific comment that if he just admits it and acts contrite he could have some sort of redemptive arc and start working again. I don’t know that the above is true in our society.
i hear what you’re saying. ‘at this event, a black man who had beaten a woman was talked about online and a white guy wasn’t’and frankly, i think that has more to do with fame and recency bias than skin color. not saying, obviously, that everything on earth isn’t hard for POC, but you just happened to pick a terrible example.
“Brown runs his own label, so can release his own material. Is Majors going to start running his own studio?”
The fact that Brown runs his own label should *probably* tell you all you need to know, but I guess some people are thicker than others.
I doubt it but if throws down the one two punch of saying he has “found God” and also supports Trump then he can definitely find work with Angel Studios.
lol…that’s f*cked..
fuck off. Black people celebrate OJ like a hero. He is not the victim in this.
Seems like false equivalency given campbell’s lack of contemporary fame and brown’s repeated acting out after the DV situation. Ice cube has for years publicly promoted anti-jewish bigoted conspiracy theories and tropes yet keeps making movies. meyers leonard got blackballed by the nba for a single slur (never mind that ice cube is an established star and leonard was a borderline nba-level player /s)
I agree it would definitely be harder for a Black man, but Chris Brown is actually doing fine. No one really lost their minds about his being at the Grammys except the chronically online, and he was invited to the Grammys! He’s been doing collabs and releasing albums steadily. Bill Cosby did fine for a hella long time even though his crimes were an open secret. Majors will definitely have to face this any time he does something moving forward, but it will be a lot easier for him if he’s able to just say “yes, that was a dark time in my life, I’ve had therapy and I’m committed every day to being a better person.” That conversation will be a lot shorter than “I DIDN’T DO IT SHE’S A LYING BITCH.” Even Mel Gibson lay low for a long time after his issues. He knew to take the L and then come back later.
“No one really lost their minds about his being at the Grammys except the chronically online, and he was invited to the Grammys!”It always strikes me as weird that people don’t realise the power imbalance in reactions like this. They’ll say things like, “Okay maybe he still has a successful career, but a bunch of people give him grief for it!” Do they really think that random people on Twitter or whatever expressing a negative opinion outweighs industry stalwarts showering money and opportunity on someone? I think I know which one I’d be more affected by.
Exactly, plus, if you beat the shit out of someone, people giving you some *very mild* grief about it for the rest of your life is kind of the price you can expect to pay? You get millions of dollars and fabulous fame, and every now and then people on the internet remember and bring it up, and then you continue to make millions and enjoy fame. Like, it’s fine.
Not to mention the part people tend to forget when discussing the effect of negative opinions on Twitter: that there are also thousands of people carrying water for Majors online right now, so his experience might be in fact the opposite of what you’d expect. The horror of the internet echo chamber is that he can block all the people who are horrified by him now and soak up all the positive support as he goes through “his” troubles. This is how assholes can say they only have a few haters instead of any real critiques, because they’ve specifically curated their online lives to only include people that give them positive feedback. Indeed, that’s what the system is designed to facilitate for all of us, even if we’re not as famous as him, or doing things that are as bad as he’s been convicted of doing.
That’s such a silly comparison. For better or worse, Chris Brown was much more famous than Glen Campbell in 2012, so obviously the public response is going to be stronger. You’re embarrassing yourself.
Hmmm.Mike TysonKobe BryantJust two examples of Black men who were given second chances. What other excuses do you have for Majors? He’s clearly a sociopath comparing himself to Obama and Dr. King. He deserves everything he gets In the Immeediate future. Should he permanently be barred from acting? No, but already wanting him to have a second chance Is a little ridiculous.
Brown has been involved in a lot more controversies than the assault of Rihanna.
I don’t think it’s a b/w issue with celebrities but is if you consider the penalties for nobodies. Majors doesn’t have the financial assets Mel Gibson has. Gibson co-produces (15 credits just for 2022-23) most of the shit he’s in. But Spacey isn’t employed.
Majors’ interview is for a certain audience who believe in what he’s selling: poor innocent black man trapped by a white woman. Even though her skin colour usually isn’t mentioned, everyone who cares enough knows the subtext: he now found real love with a black woman and also God.
That could be enough to build a future with the intended target audience: frustrated black teens (not per ABC but YT) who like his Marvel work, fitness freaks who admire his physique or people who think O.J. or Cosby were treated worse than Epstein or Weinstein. In the future today’s gaslit audience hires him for cheap action films.
Yea but Majors didn’t do anything wrong.
You read too much AV Club. Most people don’t care. He and his girlfriend got in a fight after which she went out and partied. He is not Chris Brown where pictures of beat up Rihanna were everywhere.
They had an awful relationship, but the people here act as if women have no agency. In bad relationships, the woman is also part of the problem. Instead of fighting with him, she could have left, but that would have also meant leaving the money and fame. That part is on her and a decision she made.
I definitely do read too much AVClub, but that’s neither here nor there.“He is not Chris Brown where pictures of beat up Rihanna were everywhere.”He’s not Chris Brown, that’s true, but I don’t see why the pictures matter? Rihanna is famous. That’s why there were pictures of her around everywhere. This other person was not. Just because pictures didn’t immediately flood the internet at the time doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. If Majors wants to defend her “agency” and admit that he hit her as part of a mutual fight, he can just say that.
Anyone else wonder how much contact he had with his daughter beforehand? Might there be an Alec Baldwin level voicemail directed at her? Majors seems to be trying awfully hard to portray himself as some paragon of thought. But then Disney seems to be rushing the rehab narrative…
“But then Disney seems to be rushing the rehab narrative…”I know it looks weird since its on ABC, but he’s already been fired from the Marvel movies. There’s a zero point zero chance they welcome him back. I think this is just the news division getting a scoop-y interview and it has zero to do with the other parts of the Disney empire.
or it’s Disney’s PR team knowning this guy is an idiot in his interviews, has no legit PR team anymore, and is allowing him to self humiliate while they get the ratings.
You guys give a giant megacorp too much credit thinking they’re that well organized and forward-thinking.
Considering Marvel was gonna base their whole next saga around his character, he’s lucky they didn’t trample him under the company brontosaurus.
Yeah, I think this is ABC riding the line between gross/exploitative and legit “hey, free journalism from someone who won’t shutup to save themselves” with a guy who thinks this is image rehab, not actual image rehab. See Gayle King interviewing R. Kelly after his team asked her for the interview for a very similar example.
The next most obvious similarity is, of course, any interview with Donald Trump over the past decade.
This. Disney shouldn’t be trusted as a megacorp, it’s an incredibly powerful company that wants to put its brand into everything at any cost to art/artists/workers/society, but these divisions tend to be separately run and maintained because it’s organizationally easier, but also to avoid conflicts of interest that can interfere with future business. It’s not some big well-thought-out conspiracy… they neither care about the cogs in the machine nor think that far ahead. ABC has a lot of autonomy to do ratings-seeking and awards-seeking news.
The insane thing is that he simply should have taken a plea deal, laid low for a year, and it would have blown over. Thankfully though, he and his awful legal team decided to violently fight back as hard as possible, and in the process, completely exposed an unrepentant monster for what he is.
He is definitely his own worst enemy when it comes to image rehab. Absolutely cannot get out of his own way.
I agree. He sounds like an abusive narcissist even in this interview. In the audio and texts that were leaked it’s even worse.
As Daniella stated, that’s narcissism. A narcissist can’t ever admit they have flaws, so any mistakes that were made were by other people.
He should have skipped that staged fight break up, too.
Staged….on CCTV. I guess he coerced her into playing along huh.
His lawyers are terrible for not telling him to do this. It probably didn’t help that his agency fired him, because they also would have been on this rehab bandwagon. Or maybe he just wouldn’t listen to absolutely everyone’s advice. Remember when stars used to check themselves into rehab for barely-existent “addiction” problems? Like sex addiction? Good times.
I have little doubt that they did tell him to do this and he wanted to go ahead anyway.
When you’re the kind of narcissist who does the whole cup carrying, you’re never gonna cop a plea, take the stand, etc.He probably could have taken a quiet plea to a lesser charge and be back on sets. But now he’s very done. I hope Meagan has a very good job to take care of his unemployable ass.
His lack of remorse and failure to take responsibility for his actions will work against him at sentencing. His lawyer should have told him to not do any interviews until after sentencing if he wasn’t planning on being contrite.
“Majors’ lawyer should have told not to do a thing that makes him look worse” has been a running theme in this case, second only to “Majors’ lawyer should not have done a thing that makes him look worse.”
Remorse for what? Getting his property back and fleeing?
the long pause before he says megan good is like coretta scott-king is so fucking funny. it’s like the only two black women he knows about are michelle obama and king.
We’ve had “don’t rape and don’t abuse” teaching in society for quite some time now. It might not be getting into some homes and information circles.
That needs to change.
That problem isn’t that people like Majors don’t know they shouldn’t abuse people. It’s that they don’t think their actions are abusive.Narcissists don’t think they are being abusive. They think they are being instructive.
I suppose the mental line going in their heads could be akin to: “I’ll teach her to ever tell me no to anything!”.
We need an anti-man-child school for prospective famous people.
I think it is more like, “I know far better than she does, and she does not yet understand this. If positive reinforcement isn’t working, I must use negative reinforcement. It’s for the best.”
And if that hasn’t changed in his mind, I suppose that’s why his defense team didn’t want him on the stand. Anyone outside his mind won’t take that point of view as gospel, for sure, especially the judge.
Disney: “So, uh… about that ‘Kang’ thing. We need to backburner that for a moment, but we have a new role for you – hours of screen time, we’ll take care of you…”
“Beating women and then getting caught doing so has been very difficult. Here’s some crocodile tears. Hep me Jesus, because I don’t want to take any responsibility for my actions, i just need you to fix this, so can go back to my illusions of being a great man, of and, of course, smacking woman. Also I am a flaming bag of medical waste.’ ”
My favourite bit of the interview is when he gets asked a tough question, says “Excuse me for a moment,” then squeezes onions into his eyes before sobbing “I didn’t do that.”
So clearly this was Disney’s way of throwing him under a bus more right? No way in hell does this make him look less of a unstable creep.
Maybe, but its also possible that letting him tell “his side” on ABC(for a substantial fee) may have been part of the deal when they cancelled his contract.
I don’t think Disney really did anything to make him look worse. ABC news seems like they just wanted to jump on being the first ones with an interview, and they had his number. It wasn’t a tough interview, and he was given a lot of standard, soft-ball questions. He just made himself look incredibly bad. Also what the hell were his lawyers even thinking of letting him do this prior to sentencing. If they didn’t want him on the stand, they had to know how bad he comes across.
Lawyers can’t force a client to follow their advice.
I watched the interview. Dead in the eyes. BS avoidant responses.
They gotta show that dumb face twice?
shut the fuck up about god, ya fuckwad
More like Klang amirite??
Do these n…….. People don’t like that, but they do understand it. But what they do not like is when you try to cover it u
“If you had to guess, why do you think Jonathan Majors’ team declined to put him on the stand during his domestic trial but did put him on television before his sentencing?”Maybe it’s because putting the defendant on the stand is almost always a really bad idea?
But then they put him here, and the judge is going to do sentencing, not the jury, and certainly not the general public. If the judge has any sense whatsoever, they’re going to see this interview and have a worse opinion of the defendant, not a better one.
It is a bad idea to put the defendant on the stand. This interview was also a bad idea, but the point was about rhetorically trying to figure out what putative good reason the lawyers might have had.
His fixation on his girlfriend needing to be Corretta Scott King is weird to me.
Great another white woman ignoring the actions of another but perfectly fine picking apart the actions of a black man who was running away from the abusive white woman. How many assualted woman chase after their attackers? Or go pass out in their attackers home?