The Vancouver transit system yanked 11 recordings made by actor Morgan Freeman amid surfaced allegations of sexual harassment on Thursday.
The TransLink recordings featured the actor notifying riders about a new mobile payment feature, asking them to keep their feet off the seats and reminding them not to smoke in buses, according to the Vancouver Sun.
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“Hello, bus riders. This is a smoke-free bus, but I’m sure you already knew that,” says one track. “What you might not know, however, is that you can now tap your Visa to go anywhere TransLink takes you. Have a great day.”
Another one said: “Hello, transit riders. Remember what your mom used to say: Please keep your feet off the furniture.”
According to Page Six, the records were set to debut on the system in June but have since been put on indefinite hold, after a CNN report detailed sexual harassment allegations made by multiple women against the 80-year-old actor.
Multiple women who have worked with the star on his films came forward to claim that he committed various sexually inappropriate acts against them, such as trying to lift a production assistant’s skirt repeatedly.
The incident occurred on the set of his film Going in Style, and it reportedly became so bad that Freeman’s co-star “Alan [Arkin] made a comment telling him to stop.” The woman then added, “Morgan got freaked out and didn’t know what to say.”
Another woman, who worked on the set of 2012’s Now You See Me, told CNN that the actor not only harassed her, but a number of the women on the crew.
“He did comment on our bodies,” she said. “We knew that if he was coming by… not to wear any top that would show our breasts, not to wear anything that would show our bottoms, meaning not wearing clothes that [were] fitted.”
The news outlet further reports that they spoke with a total of 16 people, eight of whom detailed personal incidents of what they defined as sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior. CNN goes on to add, however, that all 16 provided information that helped to outline what appears to be a pattern of harassment behavior on part of the actor.
CNN’s entertainment reporter Chloe Melas, who co-authored the report, was the only victim who spoke on the record.
Freeman addressed the allegations later Thursday, apologizing for his behavior, while not denying the incidents had taken place.
“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy. I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent,” a representative for Freeman told The Hollywood Reporter.
The investigation came after Melas claimed to have experienced harassment from him during the press junket for Going in Style. At the time of the interview, she was six months pregnant, and alleged that Freeman shook her hand and repeated a variation of, “I wish I was there.” She also claimed that he said to her, “You are ripe.” He reportedly made those comments in a room full of people that included his co-stars Arkin and Michael Caine.
Cameras were rolling and recorded Freeman telling her, “Boy, do I wish I was there.” His other alleged comments were not caught on film. Melas reported the incident to CNN HR, who then reached out to the HR department at Warner Bros., the film’s distributor. Both CNN and Warner Bros. are owned by Time Warner.
Melas said that Warner Bros. informed her it was unable to corroborate her account because “only one of Freeman’s remarks was on video and the Warner Bros. employees present did not notice anything.”
