Jonathan Majors Delivers Emotional Speech At The Impact Awards After Domestic Violence Conviction

The Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards took place on Friday night (June 21) in Beverly Hills, and one of its biggest moments was the culmination of a long, difficult, but necessary journey. Jonathan Majors received the “Perseverance Award” at the ceremony and gave a 15-minute-ish-long speech on what his mindset is like following his domestic assault and harassment conviction last year. Of course, this “perseverance” doesn’t excuse the actor’s actions, but it does point to him learning from his mistakes, getting another chance at his career, and moving onto better times in his life. Hopefully this accountability, personal healing process, and honesty gives him the fulfillment and peace he needs.

“I’m imperfect,” Jonathan Majors expressed tearfully at the event. “I have shortcomings, I acknowledge them. Perseverance means what? Perseverance means persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay. And the God I serve has put me in a position where I’ve had to embody that word more than I wished or wanted. We live in a world [that props up] men, Black men in particular… as either superheroes or supervillains. But I’ve come to realize, me, personally, I ain’t none of that… I’m just that guy whose faith has been tested. It has been strengthened by this testimony.”

Jonathan Majors did not receive a prison sentence for his domestic assault and harassment conviction, but the court ordered him to participate in domestic violence counseling for a year. It’s unclear what the rest of his legal trajectory will look like, as he also faced another lawsuit connected to the incident recently. This whole scandal became a hot topic of debate on social media, and not even its resolved sentence could quell that fire. Perhaps this just became the final domino to fall on that path.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Majors received his first role since this debacle recently, landing a role in Martin Villenueve’s new revenge thriller Merciless. Surely the film will inspire parallels between it and his case, even where there are none to find. Either way, we look forward to seeing what happens next, not just to set precedent for future situations like these but to see a full change of heart and behavior. After all, these complex paths can lead to better outcomes despite what folks suffered to achieve them that should’ve never happened in the first place.