Actress Claims She Was Sexually Assaulted Making A Vin Diesel Movie

Asia Argento claims to have been sexually assaulted while making a Vin Diesel film.

By Faith McKay | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Rob Cohen is a director known for launching both the xXx and The Fast and the Furious franchises starring actor Vin Diesel. Italian actress Asia Argento has now publicly accused Cohen of sexually assaulting her during the filming of xXx. This isn’t the first time the director has been publicly accused of sexual assault. 

The allegations against Rob Cohen came up during an interview the actress did with an Italian outlet known as Corriere della Sera. Vulture translated the interview to English, where she is quoted saying, “It’s the first time I’m talking about Cohen. He abused me, making me drink GHB, he had a bottle of it … At the time, I really didn’t know what it was. I woke up in the morning naked in his bed.” She added that this happened during filming for xXx. The movie came out in 2002. It was her only work on the franchise, though Vin Diesel went on to star in two sequels. She said she decided to come forward about the events at this time after others have spoken up with allegations against Cohen. She hadn’t come forward at the time since her memories were fuzzy after being drugged. 

Though Rob Cohen is mostly known for his work on Vin Diesel movies, he has been making headlines with other accusations made against him. Other allegations include one from 2019 by an unnamed individual. Interviews said the alleged attack happened in 2015 in New York City. The director’s daughter, Valkyrie Weather, has also publicly accused him of molestation. He has denied these accusations. 

Asia Argento in xXx

The allegations from the actress were made while she was doing interviews to discuss her upcoming book, Anatomy of a Wild Heart. The autobiography is releasing on January 26th and will likely include more on the accusations against Rob Cohen. The actress first became known for her role in horror movies. She also worked on action movies like xXx with Vin Diesel.

In xXx she played Yelena, a Russian intelligence agent. Her character had been dating a man named Yorgi. She teamed up with Vin Diesel against the ex. In 2014 Asia Argento decided to focus on her work as a director and writer. In the following years, she’s been in the news a lot. Asia Argento dated Anthony Bourdain at the time he passed away in 2018. That same year, she was one of the first to publicly come forward with allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Unfortunately, being a victim of sexual assault more than once is actually common

There was no mention of legal actions being made against Rob Cohen in this case, though that may change. It also wasn’t said if she’ll be sharing more about what happened during filming for xXx. It can be assumed that this will be covered more in her upcoming autobiography, though it isn’t clear what timeframes of her life will be covered in the book. After her work with Cohen and Vin Diesel in the early 2000s, she went on to work on both Italian productions and American ones, like Marie Antoinette and George Romero’s Land of the Dead.