A few years ago, Jason Mitchell was an on-the-rise actor with a very bright future. He was the lead on the Showtime series The Chi, and he was just about to appear in a Netflix movie called Desperados. Then it all went away over allegations of misconduct and impropriety. Now, he wants to set the record straight.
Mitchell went on the popular interview show VladTV and broke down how he feels about the incident now that it’s been four years since it happened. Mitchell played Brandon Johnson on the show, and even got an MTV Movie & TV Awards nomination for his performance.
After allegations of misconduct for off-set behaviour during the filming of Desperados, however, things fell apart. Previously, Mitchell said he got drunk with a coworker and “made sure she got home and the next day it all kind of slapped me in my face.”
That led to him being fired from The Chi, he said. In the interview with Vlad, Mitchell offers a more updated version of the story.
“A young lady that was part of the cast [of Desperados], she ended up getting drunk and I had her call her boyfriend to make sure she got home safely. I think he was under the impression that she liked me. He was really upset that she was out with me at the time. And as much as I stressed to him, ‘bro, I’m just trying to do, you know, what a good friend does,’ he took it upon himself to report me to HR.”
Mitchell said he was confused at the time because he didn’t realize someone who didn’t “work with us” could complain to HR. The situation made him extremely uncomfortable and he didn’t understand why the boyfriend would do that. So Mitchell called him. Fifteen minutes after that call, he got a call from his agent saying that he was making the situation worse.
“It just made me so upset,” he said. “Just because it’s this white guy telling you that I was with his girlfriend while she was drunk now all of a sudden it’s a problem? He doesn’t even work with us.”
When he got fired, he said he was told everything was fine and that no press was going to come out about it and that he’d still get paid. He said the showrunner for The Chi — Ayanna Floyd Davis — made up stories about him, and that he would testify in court if he had to.
“Unfortunately for me, I’m the one who took the bullet on [The Chi].” Davis was eventually replaced as showrunner as well. Mitchell said he doesn’t think she’s working anymore but he hasn’t Googled her or kept up with what’s going on with her.
What about the sexual misconduct allegations? He says they’re unequivocally false. “I’m a father of two. I have a beautiful mother. I have a sister who played a [big part] in raising me. My dad killed himself when I was 15. All I know is women and how to respect women and what I want for my daughters and all of that. So to see the media go from ‘misconduct’ to ‘sexual allegations’ without anybody knowing the story… it really hurt.”
Honestly, who knows what really happened, but at least he’s finally telling his side of the story.