Tyler Perry is facing sexual assault allegations from another actor and is hit with a $77 million lawsuit.
Mario Rodriguez, who starred in Perry’s “Boo! A Madea Halloween,” filed a lawsuit in California against Billionaire Pictures and Lionsgate Pictures on Thursday, alleging Perry sexually assaulted him over a period of years.
In court documents obtained by Page Six, Rodriguez alleges that in 2018, Perry, 56, “hugged me tightly,” touched his genitals and made sexual advances toward him.
The actor, who first met Perry at the Equinox gym in 2015, claims the incident happened after Perry invited him to dinner at Mastro’s Steakhouse in Beverly Hills, Calif., to discuss a role in his series The Oval.
After dinner, the two went to Mr. Perry’s house, and Mr. Perry alleges that when he tried to unbuckle his pants, he asked him to “wait a minute.”
According to court documents, Mr. Perry allegedly “put his hand inside Mr. Rodriguez’s underwear” and touched his genitals.
“Mr. Perry continued to press his body against Mr. Rodriguez and grab his penis while making sexual moans and saying, ‘Stay here, stay here,'” court documents continued to allege.
After he managed to be released, he claimed that Perry apologized and paid him $5,000.
Rodriguez alleges in the lawsuit that another incident with Perry occurred in 2019 in which Perry grabbed Rodriguez’s hand and placed it on his genitals.
“If you stay with me, I’ll take care of you and you don’t have to worry about anything,” Perry told Rodriguez at the time, according to the documents.
When Rodriguez again declined Perry’s advances, he says the “Madea Goes to Jail” filmmaker gave him another $5,000.
Rodriguez also claims in the document that the film’s distributor was “aware” of Perry’s inappropriate behavior and “continued to provide Perry with funding to make the film in reckless disregard of its obligation to intervene and ensure that his co-stars were not assaulted.”
In response to the lawsuit, Perry’s attorney Alex Spiro told Page Six: “Although we recently failed in another matter against Mr. Perry, the very same lawyer (Jonathan Delshad) has been making another demand for more than a decade now that will also fail.”
A Lionsgate representative did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
The new allegations come months after another man, Derek Dixon, filed a $260 million lawsuit against the filmmaker for alleged sexual assault.
Dixon, who previously worked as an actor on Perry’s series “The Oval,” claimed in court papers that the film producer first made sexual advances toward Perry after inviting him to his Atlanta home in January 2020.
According to court documents, Dixon described an incident in which he was so intoxicated that he slept in one of Perry’s guest rooms. She then claimed that Perry got into bed with her and touched her thighs, but she refused Perry’s advances.
The actor revealed that he was introduced to Perry after he picked her out of the crowd at a 2019 event and asked for her phone number as a potential role.
But after winning the role on “The Oval,” Dixon claimed Perry began sending her sexual messages, according to court documents. The indictment alleges that the messages included Perry asking about her sexual preferences and pointing out that she had sex with men.
According to the complaint, Dixon said she feared she would lose her job on the BET Plus drama if she complained about the sexual harassment allegations or outright rejected Perry’s advances.
He is seeking $260 million in damages for quid pro quo, workplace sexual harassment, sexual assault and assault.
At the time, Perry’s lawyer Matthew Boyd slammed the lawsuit, calling it a “fraud.”
“This individual approached Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than an attempt to defraud,” Boyd’s statement said. “But Mr. Tyler will not be swayed, and we are confident that the fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
In September, Dixon doubled down on the sexual assault accusations against Perry in an interview with ABC News, claiming that he was “clearly not interested in that kind of relationship” with Perry.
“I think it’s good for guys to try to make moves and try to take shots, but I think they should stop when they’re denied. I thought it would stop after that, but it didn’t.”
