A former assistant to actor Vin Diesel filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles today alleging that the Fast & Furious star sexually battered her while she was working for him in the fall of 2010, during the filming of Fast Five.
Diesel’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, responded to Vanity Fair’s request for comment with the following statement: “Let me be very clear: Vin Diesel categorically denies this claim in its entirety. This is the first he has ever heard about this more than 13-year -old claim made by a purportedly 9-day employee. There is clear evidence which completely refutes these outlandish allegations.”
In the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles and obtained by Vanity Fair, accused Asta Jonasson states that she was hired by Diesel’s company, One Race, to work for the actor on location in Atlanta, where Fast Five was in production. The suit describes Jonasson as a recent film-school-program graduate at the time, whose job responsibilities included organizing parties, accompanying Diesel to parties, and ensuring that she was in close physical proximity to him in case photographs were taken of him with women when he attended events without his longtime girlfriend.
The suit alleges that late one night in September 2010, Jonasson was asked to wait in Diesel’s suite at the St. Regis hotel while he entertained hostesses he had brought back from a club. Once the other women were gone, the lawsuit claims, Diesel “ grabbed Ms. Jonasson’s wrists, one with each of his hands, and pulled her onto the bed.” She asked him to stop, escaped his grasp, and waited by the front door of the suite for him to leave.
Instead, the lawsuit says, he again approached Jonasson and began to grope her breasts and kiss her chest, despite her pleas 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 continues. “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.”
According to the lawsuit, once Diesel moved to pull down her underwear, Jonasson screamed and ran down the hallway toward the bathroom, where Diesel pinned her to the wall, placing her hand on his erect penis, even as she verbally refused. He masturbated, the suit alleges, while “terrified, Ms. Jonasson closed her eyes, trying to dissociate from the sexual assault and avoid angering him.”
Hours later, the suit alleges, Samantha Vincent—Diesel’s sister and the president of One Race—called Jonasson to terminate her employment after less than two weeks on the job.
“It was clear to her that she was being fired because she was no longer useful—Vin Diesel had used her to fulfill his sexual desires and she had resisted his sexual assaults,” according to the suit, which says that Jonasson’s “self-esteem was demolished, and she questioned her own skills and whether a successful career would require her to trade her body for advancement.”
This was not the first inappropriate incident that occurred while Jonasson was working for Diesel, according to the lawsuit. Just a few days before, Jonasson’s suit alleges, another One Race supervisor summoned her to his own room at the St. Regis while she was on duty, where he took off his shirt, got into bed, and said, “Come here.” Jonasson immediately exited the room, according to the suit.
On top of sexual battery, the lawsuit claims, among other things, discrimination on the bases of sex/gender, intentional infliction of emotional distress, hostile work environment, wrongful termination, and retaliation. It also accuses Diesel and his production of an attempted cover -up and states that Jonasson “has suffered and continues to suffer humiliation, emotional distress, and mental and physical pain and anguish.”
According to the lawsuit, having signed a nondisclosure agreement when she took the One Race position, Jonasson maintained her silence over the ensuing years. The suit says that she was able to file the claims thanks to the Speak Out Act, which prevents the enforcement of nondisclosure agreements in instances of sexual assault and harassment, and California’s AB2777, which temporarily waives statutes of limitations for sexual abuse occurring in 2009 or later. The suit also says that she was empowered by the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, which inspired her to “reclaim her agency and justice for the suffering she endured at the hands of Vin Diesel and One Race.”
Jonasson went on to work in the entertainment industry as an assistant and production coordinator, among other roles.
Diesel, who was born Mark Sinclair, is best known for his roles as Dominic Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise and the voice of Groot in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. He and his sister Samantha are producers on several of the Fast & Furious pictures.
This story has been updated.
