Russell Brand fears prosecution in US over ‘sex assault’ on film set as Warner Bros says they will release footage
RUSSELL Brand fears the possibility of prosecution in the US over an alleged sex assault on a film set, legal documents obtained by The Sun on Sunday show.
We can also reveal Warner Bros is willing to hand over outtakes and other footage from his movie Arthur after a woman claimed he attacked her on the set in 2010.
The new twist emerged at a hearing in the New York Supreme Court last week, held before the British comedian and actor was charged on Friday with rape and sexual assaults against four women in the UK.
Brand’s lawyers in the US tried to suspend the woman’s civil claim against him, arguing he does not want to say anything in the New York matter that might incriminate him in the UK proceedings.
The US woman alleges Brand, 49, exposed himself to her in view of the cast and crew, and later that day followed her to a bathroom and assaulted her while she was working as an extra on the film.
She is suing Brand and studio Warner Bros. Both deny the allegations.
Brand said she was “unable to distinguish acting from reality”.
His US lawyers said in a written document seen by The Sun on Sunday that Brand had a “reasonable belief criminal prosecution is possible in the US based on allegations tantamount to criminal sexual misconduct occurring in the US, of which he has been falsely accused both by this civil Plaintiff and several others through the media”.
During the court hearing, Brand’s attorney Mark Cuccaro said the charges he faces in the UK could “overlap” with the US case.
He said the female accuser could claim the “corporate defendants (Warner Bros) were negligent” because of potential evidence they had seen indicating Brand had a “propensity to commit such acts”.
Mr Cuccaro added Brand is a “public figure, very publicly accused in the United States”.
Judge Shlomo Hagler rejected the formal request to delay the case and Brand’s lawyer withdrew it.
However, the judge put off Brand being asked to make a legal deposition in the civil case until October to protect his constitutional rights.
It also emerged during the hearing evidence will include around eight hours of outtakes and other footage from the filming of Arthur.
Patrick Lamparello, a lawyer for Warner Bros, said the company had “some hours of video outtake footage . . . four or five hours, it could be more, around eight”.
Brand was accused of raping and sexually assaulting two women in Los Angeles in a dossier published by the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches in 2023.
His new life in Florida has been upended this week after London’s Met Police charged him with rape, indecent assault and sexual assault between 1999 and 2005. The charges relate to four separate women.
Comparable crimes in the US have led to high-profile defendants getting decades-long sentences.
Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was jailed for 23 years in New York in 2020 for rape and sexual assault, and 16 years in LA on a conviction for similar offences.
Brand is currently living in Florida with his wife Laura.
I was a drug addict, a sex addict, and an imbecile, but what I never was, was a rapist.
Russell Brand
He said he left the UK because he “personally experienced how the media, government and judiciary — if you suddenly become an inconvenience — will find ways to attack and shut you down”.
Brand has amassed an online following of millions and rebranded himself a spiritual influencer.
He was at a Republican conference last summer and recently at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
LA police said they do not have an open investigation into Brand.
On Friday night, the star defended himself on X, saying the law was being wielded as a “kind of weapon” against him and others.
Appearing to relax in a sun hat on a balcony in Florida, born-again Christian Brand said: “I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord.
“I was a drug addict, a sex addict, and an imbecile, but what I never was, was a rapist.”
“I’ve never engaged in non- consensual activity. I pray you can see that by looking in my eyes.”
Arthur, also staring Dame Helen Mirren and Jennifer Garner, was a remake of the 1981 film staring Dudley Moore.
It was released in 2011, while Brand was still married to pop star Katy Perry.
The Sun on Sunday contacted Brand’s US lawyers for comment.