In an interview with Ebony magazine published on Saturday,
his first since learning in recent weeks that the women who
accused him of rape in 1999 had committed suicide, Parker also
acknowledged his previous comments to the media about the case
were "insensitive."
"When I was first met with the news that this part of my past
had come up, my knee-jerk reaction was selfish," he told the
magazine. "My only thought was I'm innocent and everyone needs
to know."
Parker, 36, whose film about an 1831 Virginia slave revolt is
set for commercial release in October, said he was only now
coming to terms with issues of "toxic masculinity" and "male
privilege" that influenced his "disrespectful" behavior toward
women as a younger man.
Parker, who was little known before "Birth of a Nation" made a
splash at the Sundance Film Festival in January, has been at the
center of a controversy since the 17-year-old rape case
involving him came to wide public attention earlier this month.
A debate over whether the artist can be separated from the art
has gripped Hollywood, the black community and women's groups,
while some civil rights leaders have suggested the media was
dredging up the rape case to discredit a powerful story about
slave resistance.
An 18-year-old fellow Penn State University student accused
Parker, then 19, and his friend, Jean Celestin, of raping her
while she was unconscious from heavy drinking.
[to top of second column] |
A jury acquitted Parker in 2001. Celestin, now credited as a
co-writer on "Birth of a Nation," was found guilty of sexual
assault, but the verdict was overturned on appeal.
Initially addressing the case two weeks ago in interviews with
Hollywood publications Variety and Deadline, Parker told Variety,
that the case was litigated and, "I was cleared of it. That's that.
Seventeen years later, I'm a filmmaker."
His remarks struck many as callous, especially when it surfaced days
later that the woman had taken her own life in 2012 at age 30.
Parker wrote in a subsequent Facebook post that he was devastated by
news of her death, while reasserting that their encounter had been
"unambiguously consensual."
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|