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.
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.
Asia Argento has mentioned the accusations against Rob 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 of allegedly sexually assaulting an unnamed victim while she was unconscious. The assault reportedly 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 of taking her to visit sex workers in overseas shooting locations when she was a teen.
