Jonathan Majors is on a redemption tour. For what, he won't say

NEW YORK (AP) — Throughout the implosion of his once-skyrocketing Hollywood career, from his arrest two years ago to his assault conviction, Jonathan Majors has maintained that he has never struck a woman.

But on Monday, amid a PR push that returned him to magazine covers ahead of Friday's release of “Magazine Dreams,” Rolling Stone published an audio recording of Majors and Grace Jabbari. Majors was found guilty of one misdemeanor assault charge and one harassment violation for striking Jabbari in the head and breaking her middle finger.

“I aggressed you,” Majors acknowledges in the recording, confirming her description of him strangling her and pushing her against a car and appearing to contradict his previous claims.

In a Wednesday interview with The Associated Press, Majors declined to address the recording, and whether he has assaulted women.

“I can’t answer that,” Majors responded. “I can’t speak to that.”

Majors, who was sentenced to probation and has settled Jabbari's lawsuit, is striving for an unusually swift rebound following a precipitous downfall. Before his arrest, Majors was steering toward years of Marvel stardom and a possible Oscar nomination for “Magazine Dreams,” in which he plays an aspiring bodybuilder prone to violent outbursts.

Two years later, Majors returns to the public eye with a pledge that he’s changed after completing a year of court-ordered domestic violence counseling. At the same time, he’s not directly addressing any of the allegations against him — including those from two previous partners, Emma Duncan and Maura Hooper, who in statements submitted pretrial, detailed physically violence and emotional abuse that bear similarities to the Jabbari case.

“It’s not something I can talk about legally,” Majors says. “I said to my wife the other day, I’ve changed. I don’t recognize myself. I don’t recognize that guy. I’m in a completely different place.”

Majors spoke reflectively about his experience of the past two years — with the exception of anything specifically related to the conviction, the additional abuse allegations or the women who say he harmed them. Despite never naming a misdeed, Majors says he is reformed.

“I’d say to anyone who cares to listen: I’ve had two years of deep thought and mediation and rumination on myself and my actions, my community, my industry,” he said. “I’m stronger now. I’m wiser now. I’m better now.”

Not everyone is convinced. Hooper described a traumatizing and controlling relationship. After it ended, Majors shamed her for having an abortion, which he had encouraged, and told her to kill herself, her statement said.

“The level of anger that I experienced from this man, I don’t know you exorcise that from your life or your behavior in only 52 weeks,” Hooper told the AP. “People go to therapy for years. I went to therapy for years after Jonathan Majors just to get my mind back.”

Hooper and Duncan’s statements weren't allowed as evidence during the trial, but they remain public record. Majors' attorneys have denied some of their claims, describing both relationships as “toxic.”

Duncan, who was engaged to Majors, described at least eight physical or threatening encounters in her statement, including threats to kill her. (She didn’t respond to an email from the AP seeking comment. Attorneys for Jabbari also didn’t respond to emails.)

“There is a documented history of 10 years of abuse of women where he calls women ‘sluts,’ he calls us ‘fat whores,’ he tells us to kill ourselves,” Hooper says. “When I hear people say, ‘Come on, how come he can’t come back into the fold?’ I don’t know that those people have read this or understand that we’re talking about a pattern.”

A changed political climate and several recent cases, including the overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s New York sexual assault conviction, have suggested Hollywood has entered a new chapter in the #MeToo movement. Majors’ attempted comeback is one of the most conspicuous tests to the fraying curbs of cancellation and #MeToo vindication.

“We’re suffering a period of tremendous political retrenchment and backlash in this movement,” says Debra Katz, the civil rights attorney who has represented Weinstein accusers. “Much of what we’ve fought for seems to be on the line.”

But women are still coming forward, and Katz believes the accused will be held accountable. For his part, Majors has no new films announced. “Magazine Dreams,” filmed pre-arrest and dropped by Searchlight Pictures, is being released by indie distributor Briarcliff Entertainment.

“Jonathan made a mistake. There was due process. Justice was served. And then we move on, which I think is generally how we like to think this country operates,” Briarcliff CEO Tom Ortenberg said Thursday.

Numerous A-listers have advocated for Majors’ Hollywood return. Still, Katz believes it will ultimately sputter because he hasn’t gone beyond “get a good PR firm and show my soft side.”

For Majors, his self-examination has focused on an earlier experience he suggests was at the root of what he calls his turmoil. Majors says from 9 to about 13, he was the victim of sexual abuse from, he says, “two male family members and my sisters’ friends.”

“It felt like kids being kids and then it became something different very quickly,” Majors says. “And then it became a pattern.”

Majors only recently began wrestling with it, he says, through therapy and conversations with his family. A phone call with his sister, he says, reawakened memories.

“It was an experience that I just killed in my head,” Majors says, tearing up.

“It’s not a boo-hoo-bro, so-sad-for-you situation,” he says, wiping away tears. “It’s life. It’s the hand you’re dealt, and I didn’t know how to play those cards. I’m learning how to play those cards.”

Now, Majors says, he’s never been happier. On Tuesday, he and Meagan Good were wed in a small, impromptu ceremony in Los Angeles officiated by his mother. “Magazine Dreams,” he thought, would never see the light of day. Now, he’s hopeful he can act again.

“I now understand that acting is in many ways my ministry. It’s in many ways my calling,” Majors says. “If it’s not, I’m waiting for someone to tell me it’s not. I’m waiting for God to tell me it’s not. He’s not said that.”