Actor Jason Mitchell Loses Acting Roles After Misconduct Allegations
Actor Jason Mitchell, best known for playing Eazy-E in the film Straight Outta Compton, has been an up-and-coming performer for the last several years. But Mitchell has now lost several major roles amid allegations of misconduct.
Per Deadline, Mitchell has lost parts in both the Netflix film Desperados and the Showtime series The Chi, on which he is a regular, following allegations of “inappropriate behavior.” It’s not clear exactly what the behavior was, but the accusations against Mitchell have resulted in the actor being dropped both from his talent agency and his management company, in addition to the acting roles.
The report refers to ” an alleged off-set incident,” which took place on production of the Netflix film, which was investigated and led to his eventual dismissal. On The Chi, per Deadline, the actor had been involved in a previous “inappropriate behavior incident,” which had been resolved.
In Desperados, Mitchell was to co-star with Nasim Pedrad, Anna Camp, Danielle Brooks, and Robbie Amell.
“Pedrad will play a neurotic woman who takes her friends (including Brooks) to Mexico to thwart a hateful e-mail she accidentally sent to her new, perfect near-boyfriend, who is in the hospital there,” per a plot summary reported by Collider late last year. “During her trip, she keeps running into a terrible recent blind date (Mitchell) who maybe isn’t so terrible after all.” The film was created by the director known as “LP.”
EXCLUSIVE: Rising star actor Jason Mitchell (The Chi, Straight Outta Compton) is facing a career crisis over allegations of inappropriate behavior https://t.co/MbMRPkJXCg
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 20, 2019
Thirty-two-year-old Mitchell’s breakthrough movie role came in 2015’s Straight Outta Compton, the biopic of the pioneering rap group NWA, in which he starred as the late rapper Eazy-E. He went on to star in the acclaimed 2017 film Mudbound and also played small roles that year in such movies as The Disaster Artist and Kong: Skull Island.
In 2018, Mitchell began playing Brandon Johnson, one of the lead characters on Lena Waithe’s Chicago-set Showtime drama series The Chi. The show’s second season is currently airing and it was renewed for a third last time. The dropping of Mitchell, who was a part of most major storylines on the show for its first two seasons, will likely result in some difficulty for the show’s creative team.
Mitchell has been nominated for awards both for his movie work and for The Chi, including the African American Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor for Straight Outta Compton, and an MTV Movie & TV Award nomination for The Chi.
