Actor Jonathan Majors is in the news after his appearance at a New York City courthouse on Tuesday for a hearing over assault and harassment charges brought against him by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in March. His domestic violence case will now go to trial on August 3, Manhattan judge Rachel S. Pauley said.
Majors is accused of striking a woman “about the face with an open hand, causing substantial pain and a laceration behind her ear,” during a March incident in New York City, according to the complaint obtained by CNN. The complaint also claims that the Marvel actor “put his hand on her neck, causing bruising and substantial pain.”
But Majors’ attorney Priya Chaundhry said Tuesday that the allegations are false, adding that she provided prosecutors with video evidence showing the female accuser rather attacked her client. Majors, who is scheduled to star in the title role of the upcoming Marvel film, “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty”, appeared at the courthouse on Tuesday hand in hand with actress Meagan Good.
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Ahead of the trial in August, here are six interesting things to know about the Hollywood star who was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in Lovecraft Country and recently starred in Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp:
His mother is a pastor
Majors grew up with his two siblings on the Vandenberg military base near Lompoc, CA, because his father was in the Air Force. After his father left the family, his mother moved him and his siblings to Dallas, TX, where she pursued a master’s degree in divinity and became a pastor. Owing to this, spirituality is a big part of Major’s life. He has since reconnected with his father thanks to the recent Black Lives Matter movement. “I hadn’t spoken to him in about two years, but I spoke to him this morning briefly. He said he saw the same protests in the ’60s, then in the ’90s with Rodney King, and now again,” Majors told People in June 2020.
He discovered his love for performing after a fight at age 14
When Majors was 14, he got into a fight at school in Dallas and was subsequently enrolled in an alternative education program. It was there that he first discovered his love for acting. “We were reading Agatha Christie and I just got into it,” he recounted to The Last Magazine in June 2019.
He landed his first role while still at the Yale School of Drama
Majors attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) after high school, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts. He then enrolled at the Yale School of Drama, and it was in his final semester that he landed his first major role as activist Ken Jones in the four-part ABC limited series When We Rise. He once recalled that he did his final semester of school work in a trailer in Vancouver on set with Gus Van Sant.
He was handpicked by Spike Lee to star in Da 5 Bloods
Instead of auditioning for his role in the film, Spike Lee handpicked Majors to play the role of David in Da 5 Bloods. In the Netflix film, Majors travels with his dad and his Vietnam Veteran friends to search for treasure. Majors described being approached directly to play the character as a “privilege”.
“To be selected by him—you feel chosen. You’ve been drafted into the Spike Lee army, and it’s the most honorable position you could be in as an actor,” Majors was quoted by People.
He has a daughter
Before attending the Yale School of Drama, Majors had a daughter, who is around 10 years old now. He said his focus has always been to give his mixed-race daughter the right education on Black history, to let her understand that “it’s actually not ‘Black history’ — it’s American history.”
He carries a little cup around him for a reason
The Lovecraft Country actor said carrying little mugs around reminds him of his mother’s message. “I’m 33 years old. I’ve been doing it since I left my mother’s house when I was about 18,” said Majors to Late Show host Stephen Colbert. Majors said his mother was “so terrified” of him entering show business that he warned him to “watch your cup, watch your glass.”
“And I always kept that in mind, for safety,” he said but added that it now means “mind your cup, you are a vessel, nobody can fill you up, nobody can pour you out. You do that yourself.”
