Jonathan Majors, the 33-year-old actor most recently seen as challenger Damian “Dame” Anderson in the box office sensation Creed III, was arrested in New York City on Saturday. The charges were “strangulation, assault and harassment,” as per the Associated Press.
Police responded to a 911 call at roughly 11 a.m. from a 30-year-old woman in an apartment in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. Majors was placed into custody “without incident” according to a police spokesperson who spoke to A.P. “The victim sustained minor injuries to her head and neck and was removed to an area hospital in stable condition,” they continued. He was out of police custody by Saturday evening.
ABC-7 in New York said that Majors was arraigned following his arrest.
A statement given to V.F. from Majors’s criminal defense lawyer Priya Chaudhry, who recently defended Paul Haggis, read as follows: “Jonathan Majors is completely innocent and is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows. We are quickly gathering and presenting evidence to the District Attorney with the expectation that all charges will be dropped imminently. This evidence includes video footage from the vehicle where this episode took place, witness testimony from the driver and others who both saw and heard the episode, and most importantly, two written statements from the woman recanting these allegations. All the evidence proves that Mr. Majors is entirely innocent and did not assault her whatsoever. Unfortunately, this incident came about because this woman was having an emotional crisis, for which she was taken to a hospital yesterday. The NYPD is required to make an arrest in these situations, and this is the only reason Mr. Majors was arrested. We expect these charges to be dropped soon.”
Majors is one of Hollywood’s fastest-rising stars. (Indeed, he had a place of prominence on V.F.’s Hollywood Issue cover earlier this year.) A few weeks ago, Majors and his Creed III director/co-star Michael B. Jordan were presenters at the 95th Annual Academy Awards, where they went viral for slipping a message of support to Angela Bassett from the stage. In mid-February, he co-starred as Kang the Conquerer in Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The character has been positioned to evolve into the next unifying villain for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, climaxing in two upcoming Avengers pictures.
In January, Majors’s independent film Magazine Dreams debuted at Sundance to significant acclaim. It is a Taxi Driver-esque portrait of a bodybuilder, and was acquired by Searchlight Pictures. At the festival, Majors detailed the prep work that went into it (and also Creed III), describing six hours of daily workouts and eating six protein-rich meals a day. Searchlight set a December release date for Magazine Dreams, clearly readying it for awards consideration.
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