More accusations have surfaced regarding James Bond director Cary Fukunaga’s alleged misconduct and grooming of younger women on film and TV productions, with one person accusing him of an “absolute, clear-cut abuse of power” on the set of Apple TV+’s “Masters of the Air.”
In a new report from Rolling Stone, nearly a dozen anonymous sources accused the 44-year-old “No Time to Die” director of pursuing sexual relationships with multiple younger female cast and crew members on his productions.
One crew member on “Masters of the Air” said that Fukunaga’s persistence in pursuing these relationships “bordered on workplace harassment,” while another source who said she dated Fukunaga for a few months after meeting him on a set said that “he made me feel so claustrophobic and suffocating.”
Two other sources say that after one scene on “Masters of the Air” wrapped shooting, Fukunaga lingered behind to take pictures of two background actresses dressed as 1940s prostitutes, one of who had just turned 18. Fukunaga claimed he needed the pictures for continuity purposes, though such photos would usually be taken by a wardrobe department staffer.
The allegations against Fukunaga first surfaced when professional skateboarder and actress Rachelle Vinberg accused him of being a “groomer” in an Instagram post, saying she spent “many years scared of him” after meeting him during the production of a Samsung commercial in 2016 just after she had turned 18.
Vinberg’s post was liked and shared by other women who had been romantically involved with Fukunaga, including “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” actress Margaret Qualley and twin actresses/interviewers Hannah and Caitlin Loesch, who worked with Fukunaga on the Netflix series “Maniac” when they were 20 and claimed that Fukunaga made sexual advances on them and suggested that “incest is fine ‘if all parties are OK with it’” while they were sitting in a hot tub together.
“We were not raped, fired from a job, or made to do anything physical against our will,” the Loesch sisters said in a joint statement. “So why does it sting so bad now to see this man, the one who we willingly walked away from, propped up as the honorable creator who brought a much-needed, ‘feminist twist’ to an iconic film franchise?”
Fukunaga has denied all allegations through his representatives. “There is nothing salacious about pursuing friendships or consensual romantic relationships with women,” his attorney Michael Plonsker said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Nevertheless, because that would not fit your narrative, you conclude he has done something wrong.”
In response to the accusations that he inappropriately photographed two background actresses while encouraging them to pose suggestively, Fukunaga’s reps said the filmmaker “takes pictures of actors – men and women, young and old – on his sets all of the time” and that “[t]o imply anything improper about doing so is false and defamatory.”
TheWrap has reached out to reps for Fukunaga and Apple TV+ for further comment.