Actor Jonathan Majors has made headlines after appearing in a New York City courtroom on Tuesday for a hearing on assault and harassment charges filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in March. His domestic violence case will now be heard in Manhattan on August 3, according to Manhattan Judge Rachel S. Pauley.
According to the complaint acquired by CNN, Majors is accused of slapping 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, the Marvel star “put his hand on her neck, causing bruising and substantial pain.”
Majors’ attorney, Priya Chaundhry, said Tuesday that the claims are untrue and that she gave prosecutors with video evidence showing the female accuser attacking her client rather than accusing her. Majors, who will play the title character in the next Marvel film “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” arrived at the courts on Tuesday with actress Meagan Good.
Here are six interesting facts about the Hollywood star, who was nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal in Lovecraft Country and recently starred in Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp:
His mother is a pastor
Majors grew up on the Vandenberg military installation outside Lompoc, California, with his two siblings because his father was in the Air Force. His mother moved him and his siblings to Dallas, TX, when his father left the family, to seek a master’s degree in divinity and become a preacher. As a result, spirituality plays an important role in Major’s life. Because of the recent Black Lives Matter campaign, he has reconciled with his father. “I hadn’t spoken to him in about two years, but I spoke with him briefly this morning.” “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
Majors was 14 when he got into a fight at school in Dallas and was placed in an alternative education program. It was there that he developed his passion for performing. “We were reading Agatha Christie at the time, and I just got into it,” he told The Last Magazine in June 2019.
He landed his first role while still at the Yale School of Drama
After high school, Majors attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He subsequently enrolled at Yale School of Drama, where he scored his first major role as activist Ken Jones in the four-part ABC limited series When We Rise during his final semester. He also recalled finishing his final semester of school in a trailer in Vancouver while working on set with Gus Van Sant.
He was handpicked by Spike Lee to star in Da 5 Bloods
Spike Lee chose Majors to play David in Da 5 Bloods rather than having him audition for the role. Majors travels to search for treasure with his father and his Vietnam Veteran pals in the Netflix film. It was a “privilege” for Majors to be approached directly to play the character.
“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
Majors had a daughter, who is now roughly ten years old, before attending the Yale School of Drama. He said his priority has always been to educate his mixed-race daughter on Black history, so she understands that “it’s actually not ‘Black history’ — it’s American history.”
