Asia Argento accused “The Fast and the Furious” director Rob Cohen of sexual assault.
Argento made his first accusation in the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera last week. She noted that it was the first time she had spoken publicly about allegedly being raped by the filmmaker while working with him on the 2002 action film “xXx” alongside Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson.
Argento confirmed his comments to Variety on Sunday, saying in the Italian publication that she was invited to a private meeting with Cohen, who allegedly gave her GHB, an anesthetic drug sometimes used to drug women before an attack.
“At the time, I really didn’t know what it was. I woke up naked in the morning in his bed,” added Argento.
ASIA ARGENTO DOES NOT PAY THE REST OF $ 380G TO THE SEXUAL ASSAULT
In response to the allegations, Cohen released a statement to Deadline categorically denying his account of the incident.
Rob Cohen denied the rape charges brought against him by actress Asia Argento.
(Toni Anne Barson / WireImage file)
“Mr Cohen categorically denies Asia Argento’s charge of aggression as absolutely false,” says the statement. “When they worked together, they had an excellent working relationship and Mr. Cohen considered her a friend, so this 2002 claim is baffling, especially considering what has been reported about her in recent years.”
Cohen’s representatives did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment.
Argento says he discusses Cohen’s alleged incident in more detail in his autobiography “Anatomy of a Wild Heart”, scheduled for release on January 26 in Italy.
ROSE MCGOWAN SAYS ASIA ARGENTO: ‘BE THE PERSON YOU WISH HARVEY COULD HAVE BEEN’
Before the book was released, she also spoke on the “Veríssimo” talk show, where she explained that she had not performed before because she was not sure what had happened to her and did not want to put her name in the spotlight of the #MeToo movement.
Asia Argento was one of the first women to speak out against Harvey Weinstein in 2017.
(Reuters)
Argento was one of the first accusers to speak out against the now convicted Harvey Weinstein rapist. She detailed her experience with the former film mogul in a New Yorker article that helped start the movement that blames dozens of powerful people in show business for sexual assault or misconduct with women in the industry.
In 2018, a bombshell claimed that Argento paid $ 380,000 to an actor who accused her of having sex with him when he was just 17.
However, Argento said that other women speaking out against Cohen in the past few months led her to the decision to finally share her experience.
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In 2019, Cohen was accused of sexually assaulting an unidentified woman who, according to The Huffington Post, was attracted to a meeting under the guise of collaborating on a TV pilot. The alleged assault occurred in 2015. His daughter, Valkyrie Weather, also previously accused him of molesting her when she was a child and teenager. She says he took her abroad to visit sex workers.
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Cohen has since denied both charges against him.