Actress Asia Argento has accused filmmaker Rob Cohen of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2002 during the filming of the Vin Diesel action movie “xXx.” Argento revealed the new accusations during an interview with Italian media while promoting her autobiography “Anatomy of a Wild Heart,” which comes out this week and covers the accusations.
“It’s the first time I’m talking about Cohen,” Argento told Milan newspaper Il Corriere della Sera. “He abused me, making me drink GHB, he had a bottle of it,” she said.
GHB is a fast-acting anesthetic that has become known as a regularly used date rape drug. Argento said that after unknowingly taking the drug, she woke up naked in Cohen’s bed, unsure of what had happened to her.
“I discovered later, speaking with a friend who opened my eyes about that substance,” she said.
Argento went on to say that she shared the information to help other women who may be faced with the same issue. “The purest thing about this MeToo is that one woman recognizes herself in the other. If one keeps a bottle of GHB, he will surely have given it to others as well.”
Cohen, who also directed “The Fast and the Furious” in 2001, has been previously accused of sexual assault in 2019 by an unnamed victim, who said she was assaulted in 2015 after being invited by Cohen to discuss a TV pilot in Manhattan. He was also accused that year by his daughter, Valkyrie Weather, of molesting her as a child. Argento said that she did not initially come out with her own story of assault because she “did not want to create another storm,” but felt more comfortable doing so after hearing of the other allegations against the director.
Cohen has denied all wrongdoing, including the latest accusations from Argento, telling AFP, “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.”
Argento became a major name in Hollywood’s #MeToo movement after she spoke to reporter Ronan Farrow for the New Yorker expose that revealed producer Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual abuse and began his fall from powerful Hollywood figure to convicted rapist now serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York. Argento herself was accused by actor Jimmy Bennett of sexual assault in August 2018 in a case that was settled after Argento’s late partner, Anthony Bourdain, paid $380,000 to Bennett. Argento denied the claims.