Anthony Anderson reacts to backlash over 2003 Lindsay Lohan interview

Anthony Anderson has responded to latest backlash over a resurfaced interview with a 17-year-old Lindsay Lohan by which the actor asks the younger star about her relationship habits.

Anderson stuffed in for Sharon Osbourne on The Sharon Osbourne Present on Dec. 16, 2003. Throughout his interview — ripped parts of that are presently circulating on-line — the actor asks Lohan about her residence life, to which she replies that she’s moved in together with her good friend Raven-Symoné.

“Each of you might be lovely girls. Each of you might be younger and have your particular person kinds,” Anderson observes, earlier than Lohan tells him in regards to the variations in decor inside their residence.

Then, Anderson, who was 33 on the time of the interview, asks, “What gents can be on the new pad with you and Raven-Symoné?”

Lohan replies, “Nobody. I haven’t got a boyfriend.” Anderson then seems towards the viewers and exclaims, “She’s single, however trying!”

The actress, then a minor, shortly clarifies that “I am unlawful, for those who are outdated.”

Anderson replies, “Some males like them younger. We ain’t gonna point out no names, however I am certainly one of them.” He and the viewers then chortle.

Later within the interview, Anderson touts Lohan’s starring function within the 2003 comedy Freaky Friday earlier than sending the present to a industrial break by telling viewers “proper now, we’re about to get our freak on” as he strikes nearer towards Lohan on the sofa they’re sitting on and places his arms round her whereas she places her palms over her mouth.

“This interview was clearly meant as comedy. He regrets if the humor was in poor style and maintains the utmost respect for Lindsay,” a spokesperson tells Leisure Weekly through electronic mail on behalf of Anderson. “Any implication on the contrary is each inaccurate and probably defamatory.”

After the video surfaced, customers on X responded with shock. One wrote, “It simply saved getting worse… and worse,” whereas one other wrote, “My jaw continues to be on the ground.”

One other person responded to the clip by asking, “Is it a rule that to achieve success in Hollywood you must be a whole creep?”

Different commenters identified that Anderson has been accused of rape prior to now, together with for alleged habits in Tennessee in 2004, the place Anderson shot the 2005 movie Hustle & Move.

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In an archived CNN article, a consultant for the actor on the time stated the star “completely denies the heinous prices which have been made in opposition to him,” and that “Anthony is a fortunately married household man who has by no means been accused of — no much less concerned in — something remotely like this, and we’re assured that when all of the information come out, he can be utterly exonerated.” The costs have been later dropped, Selection reported.

“In regard to your request for remark relating to earlier decades-old allegations, they’ve been completely investigated and decided to be fully meritless,” Anderson’s spokesperson tells EW in an announcement. “Any try to conflate unsubstantiated allegations with this interview is slanderous.”