Tiffany Boone, the actress who left Showtime’s The Chi in November 2018 after alleging that she was harassed by co-star Jason Mitchell, is speaking out about her reasons for leaving, saying in an Instagram post that “not everyone was interested in creating a work environment that was conducive to each person feeling safe, seen and heard.”
“I felt that if I didn’t speak up,” Boone writes, “other voices that were trying to be heard would be silenced.”
Mitchell, who was dismissed from the Lena Waithe-created show last May following Boone’s and showrunner Ayanna Floyd Davis’ allegations of intimidation and abuse, is not mentioned by name in Boone’s statement today.
Read the entire statement below.
“You don’t carelessly leave a ‘hit show’ that is praised by your community,” Boone says. “I deeply love Chicago and the people of that city who have embraced me. I felt honored and privileged to be part of telling their story. The weight of what I was leaving behind felt like a ton, but the weight of my responsibility to speak up was even heavier. There were people who questioned my decision. How could I be sure I would work again, especially on a project of that magnitude? I wasn’t sure, but I had faith that once I took that leap I could be guided wherever I was supposed to go.”
After Mitchell’s dismissal from the Showtime/Fox 21 TV Studios series, he subsequently was fired from Netflix movie Desperados following similar accusations from actresses on that show. He also was fired by his agency, UTA.
After leaving The Chi in its second season, Boone was cast in Jordan Peele’s Amazon series Hunters and Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu.
Here is Boone’s statement:
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