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Associated Press

Agence France-Presse

Director Luc Besson has once again been accused of sexual assault and workplace abuse.
The new accusations are the result of an investigative report by the French magazine Mediapart .
Mediapart’s article comes two months after actress Sand Van Roy accused the French filmmaker of rape, which he denies.

Besson’s lawyer also disputes the Mediapart report, which includes new assertions made by an unnamed casting director as well as an interview with Roy.
The 49-year-old casting director told Mediapart on Monday that she was assaulted by the director “every time I took the lift with him”, and that he also demanded sexual favours from her on set.
Two other women also said that Besson “behaved inappropriately” with them, with one actress claiming she had to escape from a casting in his Paris office on her hands and knees.
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According to the news site, the casting director who worked with Besson wrote to France’s public prosecutor saying she was “both a witness and a victim”, to Besson’s sexual misconduct on set in 2004.
The casting director said that Besson, 59, frequently forced himself upon her by groping her breasts, requesting fellatio and attempting to thrust his tongue down her throat.
The director’s lawyer Thierry Marembert has already denounced the rape allegation as “fantasist accusations”.
His office said on Tuesday that he had nothing to add to his statement to Mediapart that Besson “categorically denies any type of inappropriate or reprehensible behaviour.

“Mr Besson is reserving his answers for the investigators so that his innocence can be shown.”
A spokesman for EuropaCorp, Besson’s production company, told Deadline.com that it had no comment beyond expressing “its support and confidence in Luc Besson”.
Roy, 27, is one of the stars of Besson’s current project Taxi 5.
The actress reportedly told Mediapart she had a two-year relationship with Besson in which she lived in “a state of confusion” before reportedly being assaulted at the Bristol Hotel in Paris in May.
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“I said to him what he wanted to hear, out of fear of reprisals,” she reportedly said of her interactions with Besson, whose credits include The Fifth Element and La Femme Nikita.
Roy has now had two meetings with investigators, according to Mediapart.
Prosecutors are also reportedly deciding on whether they will have a meeting with the casting director.


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Sexual harassment and assault

Director Luc Besson hit with a new accusation of sexual assault

The French director Luc Besson at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. A second woman has said that Besson sexually assaulted her. Photo: AFP

Sand Van Roy

(FILES) In this file photo taken on February 17, 2018 French director Luc Besson poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the premiere of the film "Eva" presented in competition during the 68th Berlinale film festival in Berlin. A second woman has accused the French movie mogul Luc Besson of sexual assault, according to reports, two months after a young actress alleged he had raped her. The 49-year-old casting director said that she was assaulted by the director "every time I took the lift with him", and that he also demanded sexual favours from her on set. / AFP PHOTO / Stefanie LOOS

French director Luc Besson denies ‘fantasist’ accusations after rape complaint by 27-year-old actress

French authorities said Saturday they are investigating a rape accusation against ‘Valerian’ filmmaker Luc Besson, who denies wrongdoing. File photo: AP

FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2011 file photo, film producer Harvey Weinstein poses for a photo in New York. Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, a longtime Manhattan prosecutor who led the ultimately abandoned sex assault probe against former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has now taken over the rape investigation of Harvey Weinstein, two people familiar with the case said Thursday, April 26, 2018. Illuzzi-Orbon also won a conviction in the notorious decades-old Etan Patz case with a retrial of the man accused of killing the missing child.(AP Photo/John Carucci, File)

For Luc Besson, director of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, making  extravagant space opera a no-brainer

The French auteur hired three separate special effects companies to help realise his vision for the US$180 million blockbuster, which he had long considered unfilmable until the technology caught up with his imagination

Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Scarlett Johansson in a scene from "Lucy." (AP Photo/Universal Pictures)

A scene from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

Dane DeHaan and Rihanna in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

"Valerian: The Complete Collection Volume 1" contains the first three Valerian stories. Art by Jean-Claude Mezieres. (Cinebook)

Director of the movie Luc Besson poses at the premiere of "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" in Los Angeles, California, U.S., July 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Dane DeHaan as Major Valerian and Cara Delevingne as Sergeant Laureline in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

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World

Europe

A casting director tells a French magazine that Besson sought sexual favours ‘every time I took the lift with him’


A casting director tells a French magazine that Besson sought sexual favours.


European cinema

Director Luc Besson hit with a new accusation of sexual assault

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A casting director tells a French magazine that Besson sought sexual favours ‘every time I took the lift with him’

A casting director tells a French magazine that Besson sought sexual favours ‘every time I took the lift with him’