Russell Brand’s latest accuser has detailed her alleged assault and the studios’ alleged failure to protect her, in a new interview with The Sunday Times.
The woman filed a lawsuit against Brand, Warner Bros., and three related production companies on Friday in the New York Supreme Court, nearly two months after the actor was accused of “rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse” by four other women between 2006 and 2013 in a joint investigation by multiple United Kingdom-based news outlets.
Referred to as Jane Doe in the suit and in the anonymous interview, Brand’s accuser claims she was sexually assaulted when she was an extra in the 2010 film, “Arthur,” a remake of the dark 1981 rom-com about an alcoholic millionaire.
“I felt used and abused. Disgusting is the only word,” Doe told the Times. “I felt like I was being used, that I was just an object for his momentary titillation.”
Doe claims Brand first exposed himself to her in view of multiple members of the cast and crew, before sexually assaulting her in a bathroom “as a member of the production crew guarded the door from outside.”
In the court documents, Brand’s accuser claims he “appeared intoxicated, smelled of alcohol, and was carrying a bottle of vodka on set” before the incident.
During the shoot of the movie over a decade ago, Brand told The New York Times he was merely sniffing the liquor to get into character. (The actor celebrated 20 years of sobriety last December.)
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In addition to Brand, Doe’s suit lists Warner Bros. and the production companies, MBST Entertainment, BenderSpink and Langley Park Pictures, as defendants.
In her interview, Doe said she felt like it was impossible to come forward given how much sway the “Get Him to the Greek” actor had both on and off the set.
“Everyone usually turns a blind eye to bad behavior on a set,” she said. “If I had come forward and said something to, say, even a production assistant on the set, what are they going to do? Are they going to fire Russell Brand, or are they going to fire me?”
Brand’s lawyers did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Brand has yet to respond to Doe’s lawsuit, but did deny the accusations of all four women in the joint investigation back in September, saying that while he was “very, very promiscuous” during that time, the sex was “absolutely always consensual.”
Doe told the Times that hearing accounts from Brand’s other alleged victims gave her the grit to come forward.
“Alone, I don’t think I would have felt able to. Hopefully when other women see another woman putting what happened to her out there, they will find the strength deep inside themselves to speak out,” she said.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
