Russell Brand has claimed that a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her on a film set has a “false memory” of what happened and is “unable to distinguish acting from reality” in legal documents detailing the allegations against be denied to him.
The comedian is said to have exposed himself to the woman while working on the film Arthur at Le Cirque restaurant in New York in July 2010.
According to court documents, the woman, also named Jane Doe, claims the actor-turned-political commentator assaulted her in a bathroom the same day while production staff guarded the door.
In response to the allegations, made by the woman in a civil lawsuit filed in November, Brand’s legal documents allege he does not recognize the woman or remember speaking to her.
Brand, who was engaged to singer Katy Perry at the time, also faced a number of other allegations of inappropriate behavior between 2006 and 2013, including rape and emotional abuse. He has denied all of these.
Russell Brand, pictured on The Tucker Carlson Encounter, has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman on a film set in 2010
The actor, pictured at the launch of Meditation in Education in Los Angeles in 2013, has strongly denied the allegations.
In papers submitted to the court, Jane Doe, who was an extra in the film Arthur, claims that Brand “appeared drunk, smelled of alcohol and had a bottle of vodka with him on set.”
Brand, who played drunken millionaire Arthur Bach in the film, claims his ‘job was to act drunk’ and insists he was sober at the time. BBC reports.
His legal papers said: ‘The character Arthur Bach, originally played by Dudley Moore in the 1981 comedy Arthur, is known to be a drunkard.
‘Brand, an actor and comedian, played the same role in the 2010 remake. Although Brand’s job was to act drunk and portray a drunk in the film, at no point during production did he drink a sip of alcohol or drugs.’
His lawyer added that the “open alcohol bottle” was a prop for the film and that Brand had not used drugs or alcohol for eight years during filming.
They added that her “faulty memory of the events she alleged in her complaint – more than thirteen years after they allegedly occurred – is fatal to her claims.”
Speaking to the Sunday Times Last year the woman said she felt “disgusting” after the alleged attack.
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.”
Russell Brand is accused of sexually assaulting an actress while filming on the set of ‘Arthur’ in New York in 2010. Pictured: Brand in the film
The alleged assault allegedly occurred three months before Brand married pop star Katy Perry (pictured together in March 2010).
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
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.
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.
“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 in 2022.
The woman claimed she felt too scared to tell others on set and that she had “absolutely no power to stand up for myself.”
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
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.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages from Brand on the grounds of assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress.
It is one of several allegations against Brand, who was also accused of abusive and predatory behavior including 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.
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
Russell Brand on Big Brother’s Little Brother in 2006. Several women have accused him of sexual assault and predatory behavior
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 away.”
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 had 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, who has strongly denied all allegations against him, has built a large audience on social media. He has over 11 million followers on X (formerly known as Twitter), while he also hosts daily livestreams on video site Rumble for hundreds of thousands of viewers.