A violinist accused Will Smith of retaliation after he said he was fired for reporting sexual harassment while on tour with the actor and rapper, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this week.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, is linked to what the complaint describes as a “hotel intrusion” in Las Vegas last March that the suit says Brian King Joseph immediately reported to hotel security, police and the artist’s representatives.
Days later, according to the complaint, a representative for Smith accused Joseph of lying and fired him.
A management company associated with Smith, 57, is also named as a defendant in the suit. The complaint does not specify damages.
Representatives for Smith declined to comment.
According to the suit, Joseph began performing with Smith in December 2024 and joined the artist’s tour for his most recent album, “Based on a True Story,” last year. They began spending time alone together, the complaint states, and Smith allegedly told Joseph that they had a “special connection” that the artist had with no one else.
On or around March 20, while in Las Vegas for a performance, Joseph said he returned to his hotel room around 11 p.m. to find that someone appeared to have unlawfully entered while he was gone, the complaint states. According to hotel security, there were no signs of forced entry and only people who were part of Smith’s management team had access to the room while he was gone, the suit says.
Among the items Joseph said he found were wipes, a beer bottle, an earring, a red backpack, HIV medication with another person’s name, hospital discharge paperwork for someone Joseph didn’t know and a note that said: “Brian, I’ll be back no later [sic] 5:30, just us (drawn heart), Stone F,” the complaint states.
“Plaintiff feared that an unknown individual would soon return to his room to engage in sexual acts with Plaintiff,” the complaint states.
After Joseph reported the apparent intrusion to hotel security, Smith’s representatives and police, the complaint alleges, a representative for Smith blamed him for the incident and said he was being terminated.
The suit quotes the representative allegedly saying, in part, “Everyone is telling me that what happened to you is a lie, nothing happened, and you made the whole thing up. So, tell me, why did you lie and make this up?”
There was no effort to verify Joseph’s safety concerns, the suit alleges, and after he was fired, another violinist was hired, even though the complaint says Joseph was told the tour was “moving in a different direction.”
