An actress who claims she was sexually assaulted by Russell Brand in a bathroom on the set of ‘Arthur’ while production staff guarded the door has told how she felt ‘used and abused’.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, claims the comedian and actor assaulted her while she appeared as an extra in a scene filmed at Le Cirque restaurant in Manhattan in July 2010 – three months before he married pop star Katy Perry.
Brand, 48, has faced serious allegations of sexual assault, rape and emotional abuse from several women, but this lawsuit is the first allegation made in court. He denies all claims and says all sexual encounters were consensual.
The comic was first accused of sexually assaulting four women between 2006 and 2013, including one who claims he raped her against a wall in his LA home in 2012 and another who claims she was 16 had a relationship with Brand.
Since these allegations came to light in a joint investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, a raft of further claims have emerged as women told their stories to newspapers and the BBC.
Brand allegedly committed this newly reported attack in July 2010, while engaged to Perry.
Russell Brand is accused of sexually assaulting an actress while filming on the set of ‘Arthur’ in New York in 2010
The alleged assault allegedly occurred three months before Brand married pop star Katy Perry (pictured together in March 2010).
Brand was last seen in public leaving the Troubabour Wembley Park theater in northwest London after performing a comedy set on September 16.
The famous couple got engaged in January 2010 and the incident is said to have happened three months before they tied the knot in October later that year. They divorced just 14 months later.
The unnamed actress said in an affidavit that Brand “looked drunk, smelled of alcohol and had a bottle of vodka with him on set” before he attacked her. She also claims he exposed his penis to her while he was on set.
She is now speaking for the first time The Sunday times that the attack made her feel ‘disgusting’.
She said: ‘I felt used and abused. Disgusting is the only word. I felt like I was being used, that I was just an object of his temporary excitement.”
In the affidavit she said: ‘The assault occurred later that same day while I was in the bathroom.
‘Mr. Brand came up behind me and attacked me, while a member of the production crew guarded the door from outside.”
The woman claims she has ‘suffered and continues to suffer extreme shame, embarrassment and fear’ and now finds it ‘difficult to trust others’ as a result of the alleged sexual abuse.
She said she is speaking out in the hope that others who have gone through similar experiences will have the courage to come forward.
Brand starred in Arthur as a boozing, philandering heir to a fortune alongside Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig and Nick Nolte. The film was released in 2011
Actor and comedian Russell Brand filmed ‘Arthur’ on the streets of New York in 2010
The woman claims in an affidavit that Brand “looked drunk, smelled of alcohol and had a bottle of vodka” before he attacked her. In the photo: Fire on the film set of ‘Arthur’ in 2010
Brand pictured with his then fiancée Katy Perry in January 2010. He allegedly sexually assaulted an actress in July later that year
Brand (pictured in LA, 2019), 48, has faced serious allegations from a series of women uncovered in an investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches program
The alleged attack – which took place while he was reportedly drunk – comes despite Brand publicly celebrating 20 years of sobriety through alcohol and drugs in 2022.
New York Magazine also reported in a 2011 story about Brand and the film ‘Arthur’ that he had been sober for eight years.
Brand starred in Arthur – a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore film – as a boozing, philandering heir to a fortune alongside Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig and Nick Nolte. The film was released in 2011.
The woman claimed she felt too scared to tell others on set and that she had “absolutely no power to stand up for myself.”
She added: “Everyone usually turns a blind eye to bad behavior on set. ‘If I had come up and said something to, say, a production assistant on set, what are they going to do? Are they going to fire Russell Brand, or are they going to fire me?’
In court documents, the woman says she was initially booked for three days of work on the film “Arthur,” but was not brought back after the alleged assault and was only paid for one day.
The lawsuit was filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which allows alleged victims to sue their abusers. Alleged victims have until November 23 to come forward about historical sex crimes.
Russell Brand on Big Brother’s Little Brother in 2006. Several women have accused him of sexual assault and predatory behavior
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages from Brand on the grounds of assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress.
The woman believes sexual harassment on set has been eradicated in recent years, but added that more needs to be done.
“Arthur” ultimately flopped as a film and largely marked the end of Brand’s film career, although he starred in Death on the Nile, which was released last year.
The latest charges against Brand come six weeks after he was accused of abusive and predatory behavior, including one rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse, between 2006 and 2013 at the height of his fame.
He has vehemently denied the allegations – but the BBC, Channel 4 and production company Banijay have launched investigations into his conduct, while the Met Police and Thames Valley Police say they are investigating other complaints.
The first allegations included a woman claiming Brand raped her without a condom against the wall of his Los Angeles home in 2013. She was treated the same day during a rape crisis, according to medical records obtained by The Times.
Another woman claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old and still at school in Britain.
A third alleged Brand sexually assaulted her while she worked with him in LA. She claimed she repeatedly told him to get off her, and when he finally did, he “turned around.”
The fourth claimed she was sexually abused by Brand in Britain and accused him of physically and emotionally abusing her.
In the wake of the scandal, a fifth woman filed a report with the Metropolitan Police, alleging she was sexually assaulted by the star in Soho, London, in 2003.
Another accused Brand of locking her in a locker room and pinning her to the couch with a “slick” look on his face. The alleged incident, as reported in The Sun, is said to have taken place in 2008, when the comic was 33, after a performance in west London.
A woman also came forward to claim that Brand exposed himself to her in an office where BBC Los Angeles operated in 2008, before going to record a program for Radio 2, where he appeared to joke about the alleged incident.
And another, who went by the name Sarah to protect her identity, claimed the cartoon character had left her feeling “vulnerable and intimidated” after allegedly refusing to get her a taxi until she performed a sex act.
After Scotland Yard launched a criminal investigation into Brand, the Mail revealed last month that Thames Valley Police were also investigating “information relating to allegations of harassment and stalking” by a woman.
Brand and Warner Bros, who produced the film, have been contacted for comment.