Director Matthew Newton announced Friday he will step down as director of Jessica Chastain's new film, Eve, following an online backlash for past domestic abuse accusations.
Newton, who has bipolar disorder, pleaded guilty in his home country of Australia to assaulting his girlfriend in 2007, but his conviction was overturned. He was accused of more assaults over the next five years, according to The Guardian. One of the assault claims came from Rachel Taylor. The Jessica Jones star made the allegations against him in 2010.
"Yesterday I notified Jessica Chastain and the other producers on the film Eve that I will be stepping down as director," Newton said in a statement on Friday, Variety reported. "Since the announcement of this film, the responses, which are powerful and important, have not fallen on deaf ears. I am profoundly aware that I have a responsibility to lead where I have failed in the past. I can never undo the harm that I've caused the people I've cared about, and I carry that shame and responsibility with me every day."
He continued, "Over the past eight years, I have been working extensively with health care professionals to help me overcome my addiction and mental health illness. For the past six years, I have lived a quiet and sober life. All I can do now is try to be a living amends and hopefully contribute to the positive change occurring in our industry."
The film Eve was announced on August 1. Chastain is slated to produce and star in the upcoming action movie, which has been described as a character study. Newton, who wrote the script, said Chastain was his first choice for the leading role. "I have always admired Jessica Chastain's work," he said in a statement announcing Eve, according to The Guardian. "So when I wrote Eve, an intelligent, strong and incredibly capable character, she was my immediate first choice to bring her to life."
These abuse accusations were brought up previously at the South by Southwest premiere of his 2017 film Where We Are Now. "As I said in 2011, it is absolutely intolerable to harm women, it is intolerable to harm men, it is intolerable to harm anyone," he said in a statement to IndieWire in February.
"I had done these things, and I utterly regret it, and I have to live with this responsibility every day," he said. "I had a severe problem with substance and alcohol abuse then, and for almost six years now I have actively worked every single day, one day at a time, to remain sober and live a clean, upstanding life."
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