Jonathan Majors is accused of a pattern of toxic, intimidating and occasionally physically abusive behavior while a student at Yale by several former friends and classmates who spoke anonymously to Rolling Stone.
Rolling Stone said in its Wednesday report that it interviewed more than 40 people who knew Majors during his time as a graduate student and a budding Hollywood star, or were in his orbit during tumultuous romantic relationships. They described volatile, unpredictable moments of anger, emotional abuse and occasional violence, and all spoke on condition anonymity.
Rolling Stone did not speak directly with any of Majors’ former girlfriends, however. One former colleague told the music magazine that a nondisclosure agreement prohibited them from speaking at all.
The “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” actor’s lawyer did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment, but his lawyer Dustin Pusch said in a statement to Rolling Stone that he “vehemently denies” the report: “These allegations are based entirely on hearsay because neither of the romantic partners referenced were willing to engage with Rolling Stone for the article — demonstrating their outright falsity.”
Majors is in the middle of a legal struggle with a former girlfriend who accused him of domestic battery during a late-night altercation in New York. Majors denies wrongdoing and has filed his own police complaint suggesting he was the victim; a judge ruled last week that the case will go to trial Aug. 3.
Rolling stone wrote that its interviews, conducted over three months, “suggest a pattern of alleged physical, mental and emotional abuse that dates back a decade to Majors’ time at Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama.” It said he was involved in physical altercations that spilled over to his movie and TV sets as his career started to take off, and that “more than a dozen sources” described abusive behavior toward two romantic partners.
It says nine people alleged that one of his girlfriends was choked and struggled to “exit” the relationship, but “he exploited his power in the relationship to prevent her from leaving him.”
“It was pervasively known that he was [a good actor], and that he also would terrorize the people that he had dated,” one anonymous source told the magazine.
Others described him as being “aggressive” at work, including a shoving incident on the set of the upcoming “Magazine Dreams” described by two anonymous sources. A production source told Rolling Stone that bosses became aware of a complaint at the end of filming, but disputed that anyone was physically intimidated.
“Everyone who has worked with Mr. Majors knows that he employs an immersive Method acting style, and while that can be misconstrued as rudeness at times, those who know Mr. Majors and work in the industry have attested to his dedication to his craft as well as his kindness,” Pusch wrote in his statement to Rolling Stone.
Classmates noted Majors’ “bluntness and intensity” was part of what made him a great actor, but that it “could become too much” and that classmates felt they were in “physical danger”: “There was something else there,” one told Rolling Stone. “Things would slip out, and you knew it came from a personal place of truth. He was always working with something.”
At one point, classmates sent complaints to Yale administrators, who responded with a written reminder about decorum. A spokesperson for the program declined to comment to Rolling Stone.
The “Creed III” star has already faced repercussions for allegations of abusive behavior, with his publicists and managers parting ways and projects falling through. Marvel has yet to address its plans for “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” for which Majors was cast as the title character.
