HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Jonathan Majors attends the 95th Annual Academy Awards on March … [+] 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images )
More trouble is brewing for both Disney and the embattled MCU star Jonathan Majors as text messages and an audio recording between the Kang actor and his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, were entered as evidence in the actor’s ongoing assault case.
The new evidence includes disturbing text messages that were made public last week as well as a new audio recording in which Majors allegedly compares himself to Martin Luther King Jr. and describes himself as “a great man” in what appears to be an attempt to prevent Jabbari from going out drinking with friends.
In the text messages, Majors attempts to dissuade Jabbari from going to the hospital for a head injury. “I will tell the doctor I bumped my head if I go” she replies. “I’m going to give it one more day, but I can’t sleep and I need some stronger pain killers. That’s all: why would I tell them what really happened when it’s clear I want to be with you?”
He proceeds to tell her that he’s a monster and threatens to kill himself, among other troubling texts.
The audio recording sheds a new light on the case and on the pair’s relationship, as well as into Majors’ high opinion of himself.
“I’m a great man. A great man,” Majors says at one point in the clip. “I am doing great things, not just for me, but for my, for my culture and the world. That is actually the position I’m in.”
He likens his greatness to other important historical figures in the black community during the recording as well, saying: “No, no, do you understand that? Because that team, that unit, right? Grace has to be of a certain mindset to support — Coretta Scott King, do you know who that is? That’s Martin Luther King’s wife. Michelle Obama, Barack Obama’s wife.”
There’s more. You can read the transcript and listen to the audio over at Variety.
Setting aside the outcome of the assault case, this is a glimpse into a deeply troubling mindset from Majors. It’s clear at this point that Disney needs to cut its losses and either recast the current MCU super-villain, Kang, or change course entirely and move away from the Kang storyline. I agree with my colleague Paul Tassi who wrote last week: “Majors needs to go. He needed to go a while ago, and this new evidence read into record has to spur Disney to action at this point.”
It appears evidence will continue to mount. It may not be evidence that convicts him in a court of law, but his reputation is in tatters, and judging by the way he behaves in these texts and the audio recording, it’s a deserved fall from—well—grace. Oh the irony. Whether or not Majors is guilty or innocent of this assault, he is clearly someone that Disney should part ways with for a host of other reasons.
All of this is a terrible shame, I should add. Majors is a remarkably gifted actor. His performances in Lovecraft Country and in Loki’s brilliant second season were both phenomenal. If we were able to entirely separate the art from the artist, I could simply heap praise upon him for his extraordinary talent. But alas, this is not possible. You can be both supremely talented and a very bad person at the same time, unfortunately.
