"The Birth of a Nation" actor, co-writer and director Nate Parker was once involved in a highly-publicised college rape case, and it's an involvement that he has come to deeply regret.
While speaking to Anderson Cooper on the show "60 Minutes" last week to promote "The Birth of a Nation," Parker faced his past and admitted that a good "Christian man" would never have allowed himself to be put in such a situation where a fellow student felt violated.
Parker, 36, was referring to the alleged rape case that took place 17 years ago. He and his wrestling teammate from Penn State, Jean Celestin, were accused of raping a freshman college student. In their defence, they claimed they had consensual intercourse and did not rape the young woman.
Even though Parker was cleared of rape and sexual assault charges, the young woman never truly recovered from the incident. She tried to kill herself multiple times and finally succeeded in 2012.
"As a Christian man, just being in that situation, yeah, sure. I'm 36 years old right now. And my faith is very important to me," Parker said during an interview. "You know, so looking back through that lens, I definitely feel like — it's not the lens that I had when I was 19 years old."
It was only this August when Parker learned that the woman had succeeded in her suicide attempt, and the actor was consumed with sadness and regret.
He wrote a lengthy Facebook post detailing the pain he felt over the woman's suicide. "I myself just learned that the young woman ended her own life several years ago and I am filled with profound sorrow. I can't tell you how hard it is to hear this news. I can't help but think of all the implications this has for her family," he wrote.
"While I maintain my innocence that the encounter was unambiguously consensual, there are things more important than the law. There is morality; no one who calls himself a man of faith should even be in that situation," he added.
