Morgan Freeman making inappropriate comments to a Chicago reporter has resurfaced in old video footage, following CNN‘s report on allegations of sexual misconduct against the Oscar-winner.
Tyra Martin, an entertainment producer for WGN-TV in Chicago, interviewed 80-year-old Freeman several times over the past 10 years and he “always made sexually charged comments” during their interviews, she told CNN reporter Chloe Melas.
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“But there was one time that she felt truly crossed a line,” Melas continued. “That was when he asked her not to pull down her skirt as she stood up to leave the interview.”
That interview was not caught on video, reports PEOPLE. However, HLN shared another interview between Martin and Freeman, in which he told her, “You’ve got magic written all over you child.” Later, he tells her, “I am enjoying bachelor life immensely. I get to look at you and drool.”
The interview was recorded during Freeman’s press tour for Now You See Me in 2012.
Freeman told Martin he was single and enjoying life as a bachelor.
Martin told CNN she was “in on the joke.”
On Thursday morning, CNN published its findings of an investigation into allegations against Freeman in which eight women accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct. According to one allegation, Freeman tried to lift a production assistant’s skirt, but was stopped by Going In Style co-star Alan Arkin.
“Alan [Arkin] made a comment telling him to stop,” the woman told CNN. “Morgan got freaked out and didn’t know what to say.”
“He did comment on our bodies,” one woman, who was not personally harassed by the actor and worked on Now You See Me (2012), told CNN. “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.”
Freeman later apologized, but did not deny individual incidents reported by CNN.
“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy,” reads a statement released by Freeman’s representatives. “I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent.”
The only alleged victim to speak on record was CNN entertainment reporter Melas, who co-wrote the CNN report with An Phung.
After the allegations surfaced, Vancouver transit system officials pulled the 11 recordings Freeman made for TransLink buses and other forms of transit.
