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Italian actor-director Asia Argento has accused “The Fast and the Furious” director Rob Cohen of sexual abuse.
Argento, who is one of the most outspoken voices against sexual harassment in the entertainment industry and an early accuser of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, made the allegations against Cohen in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera. She claimed that Cohen abused her and made her drink GHB, an anesthetic associated with date rape.
“At the time, I really didn’t know what it was. I woke up in the morning naked in his bed,” Argento told the publication.
She alleged that the assault took place while she was filming the 2002 Cohen-directed actioner “xXx,” alongside Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson.
Addressing the allegations, Cohen’s spokesperson said the claims made by Argento were “absolutely false”.
“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 spokesperson said in a statement issued to Deadline.
Argento has mentioned about the accusations against Cohen in her upcoming autobiography “Anatomy of a Wild Heart,” which will release in Italy on Tuesday.
Prior to the Italian actor, Cohen was accused in a 2019 Huffington Post report of allegedly sexually assaulting an unnamed victim while she was unconscious. The reported assault occurred in 2015 after Cohen invited the woman for a business meeting in Manhattan to discuss a TV pilot.
The filmmaker faced similar charges from his daughter Valkyrie Weather who accused him of molesting her when she was a child. Weather also accused Cohen for taking her to visit sex workers in overseas shooting locations when she was a teen.
Cohen has denied the allegations in both cases.
