Steven Seagal walked out of a televised BBC interview Thursday after being asked about a flurry of sexual misconduct accusations leveled against him in recent months.
The BBC interview was cut short after the British network’s host Kirsty Wark asked Seagal: “In terms of your life in America, you’ve been very much caught up in allegations of sexual harassment. You had a rape allegation against you and I wonder how you deal with all that.”
Before she could even finish her question, Seagal pulled his earpiece out, stood up and left the set. An offscreen technician can be heard offering to help “take the microphone off you.”
A cool Wark simply asked, “Hello, Steven Seagal?” before pivoting back to her viewers.
“Seagal there, and of course though he didn’t respond there, he has said previously that he denies any allegation made against him,” she said looking directly at the camera.
TheWrap reported in January that two women had filed a report with the Los Angeles Police Department against the actor. Former actress Regina Simons said Seagal raped her in 1993 after she appeared as an extra in “On Deadly Ground.” Another woman, Dutch former model Faviola Dadis, told TheWrap Seagal groped her during an audition in 2002. Another 2005 sexual misconduct case against Seagal is currently under review by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.
Simons and Dadis were two of more than a dozen women who have accused Seagal of sexual misconduct, including Portia de Rossi, Julianna Margulies, Katherine Heigl and Jenny McCarthy.
Seagal — who has been spending time in Asia and Russia where he is a passport-carrying citizen — has denied any wrongdoing.
Last month, the L.A. County District Attorney’s announced that it has declined to prosecute a sexual a 1993 case against him, saying the statute of limitations had passed.
TheWrap first broke the story of an alleged 1993 rape back in January, with Simons accusing Seagal of inviting her to a wrap party at his house for his film “On Deadly Ground.” But upon arrival, Seagal, who was the only person at the house, took her into a back room and sexually assaulted her.
“He took me into this room and then just closed the door and started kissing me,” she said. “He then took my clothes off and before I knew it he was on top of me, raping me.”
“The only way I’m able to describe it is I literally felt like I left my body. I think because of the situation I was completely caught off guard,” Simons added. “Tears were coming down my face and I know that it hurt. He was three times my size.”
Watch Seagal’s BBC interview below:
This is the moment Steven Seagal walks out on a #newsnight interview over questioning about #metoo allegations, which he denies.@sseagalofficial | @KirstyWark | @BBCTwo | #newsnight pic.twitter.com/Lr6mE3th4F
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) October 4, 2018