As Jonathan Majors is convicted for assault, his well-crafted soft Black masculinity sours

Jonathan Majors was shaping up to be one of Hollywood's most sought-after leading men.

The Yale-trained actor known for always carrying around an artisanal cup to show "nobody can fill you up, nobody can pour you out. You do that yourself" was primed to take over the industry. 

His breakout performances in films like the critically lauded "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" and Michael B. Jordan's "Creed III" shot him right into the stratosphere. He was even nominated for an Emmy for his performance in the now-canceled HBO show "Lovecraft Country." Most of all, the star was prepping to become the next mega-villain in Marvel's potential next box office smash, "Avengers: Kang Dynasty" after debuting in "Loki"  and being featured in the flop "Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania."

However, things took a detour for Majors when he was arrested earlier this year after police responded to a 911 call after an altercation between Majors and a woman whom he had allegedly assaulted. Majors was arrested and charged with four counts of assault against his ex-partner Grace Jabbari. 

The actor and his legal defense kept the same stance — Majors was innocent. His legal team urged the charges were false and they were "confident that he will be fully exonerated." But that didn't stop his management team, several movies and organizations the actor worked with from dropping him. After a 10-day trial that ended on Monday, Majors was found guilty of reckless assault in the third degree and harassment. Almost immediately, Marvel fired the future face of their franchise. Also, Disney has postponed Majors' new independent film "Magazine Dreams," originally scheduled for release on Dec. 4, indefinitely.

The last few years had been a whirlwind. Majors went from the height of his career to facing up to a year in jail for assaulting his ex-partner (sentencing takes place in early February). It's a huge loss for the actor who had built a reputation on perfecting his craft and defying expectations for his gender – in direct opposition to the image that emerged from the trial. But if reports can be believed, even his carefully crafted image had cracks. Here's a look at the Jonathan Majors that came up in Hollywood, and the clues that may have indicated it would all come crashing down.

Jonathan Majors' artistic persona: a man dedicated to his craft 

Throughout Majors' career, the actor has chosen roles that show his professional training and range. There's the quiet playwright in his breakout "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" or the Korean war veteran navigating a Jim Crow America in "Lovecraft Country," or even the charismatic, ever-transforming multiverse supervillain in the MCU.

Majors doesn't pretend to be a serious actor — he is. He is a man of the craft, earning degrees from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Yale University.

In a profile with Ebony, the actor shared that his acting process is intense: "But if you’ve not done the work, then you just become a lesser father, a lesser actor, a lesser partner. I just become lesser. And the work allows me to start acting; it’s my occupation and my vocation. I take it extremely seriously."

It's clear that Majors' craft and process have been crucial to his preparation for his roles, but this extreme dedication may have foreshadowed a dark side as well. Classmates at Yale reportedly had issues with his behavior and process. According to a Rolling Stone exposé, Majors' alleged abusive behavior began in acting class, with several anonymous sources shared experiences they saw of the actor. “His behavior was very problematic for his class,” a Yale alum said. “A lot of people felt in physical danger around him and certainly in mentally precarious positions because of him.”

Following an alleged altercation that Majors was involved in during class caused Yale administration to send an email to remind students about "rehearsal etiquette and violence." One of his classmates said that Majors hit him while they were play fighting during rehearsal, and when the student later confronted Majors, he was said to shrug it off. 

“He can be very charismatic and really gentleman-like and sweet, but then he could also be really cold, scary, and violent . . . He was someone who would use his physicality to intimidate,” the person said.

Some sources shared with Rolling Stone that the actor was also aggressive on set during the filming of "Magazine Dreams." Two production members claimed that the actor pushed a person and physically intimidated another while screaming at them, leading to a complaint to producers. Majors' attorney said the actor “vehemently denies Rolling Stone’s false allegations that he physically, verbally, or emotionally abused anyone," including past romantic partners and classmates at Yale.

Jonathan Majors' soft Black masculinity 

The actor's ability to become an overnight powerhouse lies in his ability to play into a different kind of masculinity that we didn't see in many leading men in Hollywood — let alone Black leading men in the industry. Majors once said in an interview that "nothing is a monolith — not Blackness, not maleness, not comic book villains."

This version of masculinity can be described as the anti-hypermasculine man. It is a man who rejects traditional gender roles and sexism but also embraces empathy, vulnerability and emotions. But soft masculinity is rarely afforded to Black men and is also challenged in the Black community. Research shows that harmful and inaccurate stereotypes of Black men usually depict images of violence, toxic masculinity and criminality. These stereotypes find their way into discriminatory policies and fuel racial bias and prejudice towards Black men — which is why Major's rise was exciting and compelling. Through his work, especially roles like "Lovecraft Country," he redefined what it was to be a leading Black man in this seemingly post-racial era of Hollywood. 

Majors even publicly questioned the traditional forms of masculinity people were projecting onto him as he received criticism for a pink-infused Ebony photoshoot some members of Black Twitter had issues with. He said in response: "I'll just be curious. Tell me what masculinity is. I wouldn't want to walk up on me in the street, but it's bigger than— It's love. It's like there's awareness and then there's acknowledgment of ignorance. A big part of it is kindness, use of power, gentleness. These are masculine characteristics. It's quite unmasculine to try to emasculate another man."

Not only did Majors embrace a different form of masculinity but also claimed in an interview with The Cut that he “falls in love every day” and would “cry probably a few times a week.” His favorite romantic movies are "The Notebook," "Love Jones," "Blue Valentine" and "Love & Basketball."

But this seemingly hopeless romantic who wears his heart and emotions on his sleeve was not the one who was heard in court. While Majors did not testify, a recording was played in which he can be heard berating his partner for going out, telling her regardless of his "temper, my s**t . . . all that said, I am a great man. A great man. I am doing great things, not just for me, but for my culture and for the world. That is actually the position I'm in."

While Majors was performing his soft masculinity for the public and himself, behind closed doors he was allegedly threatening to kill himself when his partner considered going to the hospital for one of her injuries. This is just one of many incidents where Majors used his emotional state against his former partner. 

Ultimately, because our understanding of masculinity has changed as people embrace new and quite honestly healthier versions of it, it is pertinent to acknowledge that this progressive new form can also be weaponized by people like Majors. In Majors' case, it was used to hide under true, violent and horrific forms of masculinity and exploit his artistic career and process as a way to aid in covering the violence.