Italian actress Asia Argento, who was a vocal figure in the #MeToo movement, has accused ‘The Fast and the Furious’ director Rob Cohen of sexual assault.
Cohen has responded calling the claims “bewildering”.
Argento told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that the alleged assault took place in 2002 during the filming of Cohen’s action movie ‘xXx’.
“It’s the first time I’m talking about Cohen. He abused me making me drink GHB, he had a bottle of it,” she said in the interview, referring to the date rape drug. The accusations are also detailed in Argento’s upcoming autobiography 'Anatomy of a Wild Heart'.
“At the time I really didn’t know what it was. I woke up in the morning naked in his bed,” she added. The accusations are also detailed in Argento’s upcoming autobiography 'Anatomy of a Wild Heart'.
In a statement, Cohen has hit back saying he and the actress had a good working relationship.
“Mr Cohen categorically denies Asia Argento’s accusation of assault against him as absolutely false. When they worked together, they had an excellent working relationship and Mr Cohen considered her a friend, so this claim dating back to 2002 is bewildering, especially given what has been reported about her in recent years,” the statement read.
The last part of the statement seems to refers to assault accusations made against Argento in 2018 by her co-star Jimmy Bennett, who says she sexually assaulted him in when he was 17 and she was 37.
Argento, 45, was one of the first to speak out against sexual abuse in the film industry, helping to trigger the #MeToo campaign. In 2017, she revealed that disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had raped her in 1997, when she was 21.
— With inputs from AFP