Anthony Anderson has responded to a resurfaced viral video in which he tells a teenage Lindsay Lohan that he “likes them young,” with a representative telling Entertainment Weekly, “He regrets if the humor was in poor taste.”
The video, clipped from an appearance Lohan made on The Sharon Osbourne Show in December 2003, when Anderson was filling in as host, features Anderson asking Lohan about her new shared home with friend and fellow actor Raven-Symoné.
“Both of you are beautiful women. Both of you are young and have your individual styles,” he notes, before asking, “What gentlemen will be at the new pad with you and Raven-Symoné?“
Lohan responds, “No one, I don’t have a boyfriend,“ at which point Anderson turns to the audience and says, “She’s single, but looking!“
Lohan, who was 17 at the time, added, “I’m illegal, for people that are old.“ Anderson, who was 33, replied, “Some men like them young. We ain’t gonna mention no names, but I’m one of them.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he moved closer to Lohan on the couch and put his arms around her as he told viewers, “Right now, we’re about to get our freak on,” before the show cut to a commercial break.
A spokesperson for Anderson told Entertainment Weekly, “This interview was clearly intended as comedy. He regrets if the humor was in poor taste and maintains the utmost respect for Lindsay. Any implication to the contrary is both inaccurate and potentially defamatory.”
Anderson has been accused of sexual assault three times. In 2004, he was accused of raping an extra on the set of Hustle & Flow, though the charges were later dropped after a judge ruled there was no probable cause.
He was sued again in 2004 by another woman who accused him of assaulting her on the set of All About the Andersons.
He was later investigated for sexual assault by the LAPD in 2018, though the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office eventually declined to prosecute the case.
“Authorities say [the accuser] declined to be interviewed after filing the initial report. Therefore, that case was declined,” The Hollywood Reporter noted.
In a radio interview conducted after the Hustle & Flow case was dropped, Anderson described his accuser as “somebody just out to get a fast buck,” adding, “As celebrities, we’re targets with things like that. Everybody has a speed bump in life, and that was mine.”
