Derek Dixon has broken his silence after accusing Tyler Perry of sexual assault and harassment in a bombshell $250 million lawsuit last month.
Speaking on his first interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Oval star opened up about his lawsuit, filed on June 13, against the Sistas star.
Dixon said, “I couldn’t just let him get away with this.”
“Everyone deserves to go to work and do their job without their boss trying to have sex with them,” he added.
“My goal is to help ensure that the next generation of actors and creatives don’t have to choose between their dreams and their dignity.”
"This is why people, especially men, don't come forward," he said of the negative attention, adding, "I was too afraid to come forward. I knew it would be awful. And I was right."
Asking about his effort to settle with Perry privately before filing his complaint, Dixon revealed, "There are always attempts to resolve situations like this privately, but they never result in the type of change necessary to protect further victims.”
He added, "At the end of the day my absolute fear is that he will be able to continue doing this without any major consequences."
Dixon said he accepted the abuse as an unfortunate norm, thinking it was the only way to keep working in the industry.
"But eventually, I couldn't stay silent anymore," he said.
Shortly after Dixon appeared on his first interview, Matthew Boyd, an attorney for Perry, reiterated his initial statement.
Reacting to Dixon's email interview, the attorney said, "This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam."
The statement continued, "But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail."
To note, in a lawsuit, Dixon accused Perry of creating "a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic" while he worked for him.
Dixon appeared in 85 episodes of Perry’s BET series The Oval that aired between 2021 and 2025.
