José Mayer vents about accusations of harassment and career abandonment: ‘I became an obvious target’

José Mayer spoke for the first time openly about the accusation of harassment that made him move away from TV in 2017. At the age of 73, the actor remembered the episode when he sent a message to the production of the program “A tarde é sua”, presented by Sonia Abrão , about your state of health,

Mayer was hospitalized for nine days at Casa de Saúde São José, in Humaitá, in the South Zone of Rio, after feeling sick with respiratory indisposition. He stayed at the health unit to undergo tests and was discharged last Monday, 27.

“Actually, what I had was a relapse of the autoimmune disease that arose in me on the occasion of those disastrous events in 2017, when I ended up opting for silence and abandoning my acting profession, a year before completing my 50-year career “, says José Mayer in the message.

Then he recalls the accusation of sexual abuse made by costume designer Su Tonani in 2017.

“I, who became a kind of ‘symbol’ of the old macho man by the repetition of so many characters with this profile, ended up becoming a somewhat obvious target, but I agree that the reconstruction of new values ​​of masculinity is, yes, a necessity of men new Times!”.

As a result of the episode, Mayer now lives as a recluse at his home in Itaipava, in the Serrana Region, in the company of his wife, Vera Fajardo.

remember the case

In April 2017, in a first-person account published on the blog “#Agoraéquesãoelas”, of the newspaper “Folha de S. Paulo”, costume designer Susllem Tonani accused actor José Mayer of sexual harassment. In a long text, the TV Globo employee narrated several episodes in which she would have been embarrassed by the actor of the soap opera “A lei do amor”, at 9 pm.

“In February 2017, inside the company’s dressing room, in the presence of two other women, this actor, white, rich, 67 years old, who was famous as a stud, put his left hand on my genitals. Yes, he put his hand in my pussy and even said that this was his old desire”, said Su Tonani in the report.

At the time the case came to light, the actor released a letter apologizing and confirming that he made sexist jokes with the costume designer. However, he stressed that he had no intention of offending her.

“I made a mistake. I made a mistake in what I did, in what I said, and in what I thought. The correct attitude is to apologize. But that alone is not enough. It is necessary to publicly recognize what I do now. Even though I did not intend to offend, attack or disrespect, I admit that my sexist jokes exceeded the limits of the respect with which I should treat my colleagues. I am responsible for what I do”, continued José Mayer, without specifying what kind of attitudes he committed”, he said at the time, completing being ” a fruit of a sexist generation”, and committing to change its posture.

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At the time, costume designers, actresses and other TV Globo employees gathered at the station, at Estúdios Globo, in Jacarepaguá, in an act of support for costume designer Su Tonani. The demonstration, which used the hashtags “it messed with one, it messed with all” and “No more harassment”, organized by Bahian photographer Catarina Rangel on social networks.

Several actresses, including Sophie Charlotte, Drica Moraes, Alice Wegman and Tainá Müller, posted photos on their social networks wearing T-shirts with the phrase “it messed with one, it messed with all”. Gloria Pires, Grazi Massafera, Bruna Marquezine, Camila Pitanga and Taís Araujo shared the phrase.

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