Actor Jonathan Majors is being praised on social media for standing with a Black reporter who interviewed him on the red carpet.
The Lovecraft Country star walked the red carpet for the Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah, over the weekend and was gearing up to answer questions for one Black and queer journalist Daric L. Cottingham
who patiently waited for a chance to interview the screen star.But a video clip captured the moment Majors stopped for the interview and was interrupted by festival staff who tried to rush him inside and abruptly stopped the reporter’s line of questioning.
Majors’ publicist even stepped into the fray to intervene and tell the staffer to give Majors just “two minutes” to conduct the interview.
Cottingham told the staffer that he literally could have already gotten his answer from Majors in the time he was trying to shoo him away.
Majors, who returned to the festival to promote his film, “Magazine Dreams,” refused to let the staffer halt the interview.
“Just go. Just go,” Majors told the journalist who was trying to reason with the staffer.
“If he physically pulls me, I’m sorry,” Majors tells the reporter who asked the staffer to step out of his camera frame.
Fans and onlookers celebrated Majors for defending a Black journalist working the red carpet. Many shared comments about the harsh conditions Black reporters tend to experience on red carpets.
“This is the life of Black people in the entertainment industry,” one user wrote. “Even though we’re widely revered as actors and musicians we’re treated like afterthoughts as people.”
“Unfortunately this is what the majority of Black journalists have to deal with at these functions,” added someone else.
“Mr Majors a real respectful and respectable dude!” one fan said.
Majors has joined the ranks of Halle Berry who went viral back in 2019 after refusing to be rushed away from speaking with a Black journalist on the red carpet.
We need more people like Jonathan Majors and Halle Berry who take notice of the Black reporters who tend to get placed on the end of the red carpet lines.