UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIFORNIA - MAY 20: Vin Diesel arrives at the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project 2023 Block Party at Universal Studios Backlot on May 20, 2023 in Universal City, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic)
Vin Diesel is the latest entertainment industry giant to be accused of a sexual-based violation in a lawsuit. According to Vanity Fair, Diesel’s former assistant, Asta Jonasson, is suing the actor for sexual battery.
She reportedly filed in Los Angeles on Dec. 21. On Friday, (Dec. 22), Diesel issued a reactive statement.
Meanwhile, his former employee says the battery incident occurred in 2010 while Vin was filming ‘Fast Five.’ Vin Diesel’s production company, One Race, hired Asta to work on location in Atlanta, per the lawsuit.
At the time, Jonasson had reportedly recently graduated from a film school program in Los Angeles. The filing describes her responsibilities as an assistant. Those duties included organizing parties, being Diesel’s plus one to parties, and staying close to him during events “in case photographs were taken of him with women” while his girlfriend wasn’t present.
The incident reportedly occurred during an evening in September 2010. Diesel allegedly instructed Jonasson to wait in his St. Regis hotel suite while he entertained a couple of hostesses from a night at the club.
The former assistant says Vin Diesel attacked her after the hostesses had left. He allegedly “grabbed Ms. Jonasson’s wrists, one with each of his hands, and pulled her onto the bed.” Jonasson says she asked him to stop and was able to escape his grasp. She then allegedly waited by the suite’s front door for him to leave.
Instead, Diesel allegedly approached her and began kissing and groping her chest as she pleaded for him to stop.
“Ms. Jonasson was afraid to more forcibly refuse her supervisor, knowing that getting him out of that room was both crucial to her personal safety and job security,” the suit stated, per Vanity Fair. “But this hope died when Vin Diesel dropped to his knees, pushed Ms. Jonasson’s dress up toward her waist, and molested her body, running his hands over Ms. Jonasson’s upper legs, including her inner thighs.”
After he allegedly attempted to pull down her underwear, Jonasson says she screamed and ran down the hotel hall toward a bathroom. However, Diesel didn’t let up and pinned her to the wall. He then reportedly used her hand to masturbate his “erect penis” as she “verbally refused.”
The former assistant says at that point, she tried to disassociate from the assault and keep from making the actor angry. Several hours later, Vin’s sister and President of Race One, Samantha Vincent, reportedly fired the assistant over the phone. Asta had reportedly been on the job for under two weeks.
Jonasson also detailed another inappropriate interaction with a One Race supervisor. The person had called the on-duty assistant to his St. Regis room. Once there, he reportedly hopped on the bed shirtless and asked her to “Come here.” In response, she immediately left the room.
Jonasson’s lawsuit seeks to hold Vin Diesel and his production company accountable. She says both participated in an attempted cover-up of the incidents. Meanwhile, she suffered (and continues to suffer) from “humiliation, emotional distress, and mental and physical pain and anguish.”
Though she signed a nondisclosure with One Race, the Speak Out Act and California’s AB2777 provided legal paths for her to sue. The act –passed in 2022– prohibits enforcement of nondisclosures in cases of sexual assault and harassment. AB2777 temporarily waives the state of limitations for incidents as early as 2009 and through 2026.
After VF broke the story, Vin Diesel issued a statement to the New York Post via his lawyer, Bryan Freedman.
“Let me be very clear Vin Diesel categorically denies this claim in its entirety. This is the first he had ever heard about this more than 13-year-old claimed maide be purportedly a nine-day employee. There is clear evidence which completely refutes these outlandish allegations.”
TSR Staff China Lovelace contributed to this report.
