Asia Argento has claimed she was the victim of her sexual encounter with Jimmy Bennett and said she ‘froze’ when the then 17-year-old ‘jumped’ on her.
Argento, 43, opened up during an interview on Italian news show Non è l’Arena, in which she said what hurt her most amid the accusations that she sexually assaulted a 17-year-old was being called a pedophile.
The actress also compared the incident to being raped by Harvey Weinstein – adding that her biggest regret was not defending herself.
Argento’s appearance came a week after Jimmy Bennett, who has accused the actress of sexually assaulting him in a hotel room when she was 37, appeared on the show and said she had violated him.
Speaking on the show on Sunday, she said that she ‘froze’ when Bennett began to kiss her and touch her ‘in a way that was not that of a child with his mother, but that of a boy with crazy hormones.’
Asia Argento has revealed that what hurt her most amid the accusations that she sexually assaulted a 17-year-old boy was being called a pedophile
She added: ‘I laugh, but it’s also a traumatic thing. Seeing this boy who had always been like a child behave like this with me completely froze me.
‘He literally jumped on me; he put me sideways across the bed. He did what he had to do. He didn’t use a condom. It lasted for two minutes. He had an orgasm.
‘I was cold, unable to move. Shocked, I asked him afterwards why he had done this, and he told me that I had been his sexual fantasy since he was 12 years old.’
Argento brought with her proof that she had seen a therapist for trauma in July 2013, a few months after the sexual encounter with Bennett, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
She also compared the incident to her encounter with Weinstein.
‘I had not even defended myself in the meeting with Weinstein. I think it’s because of some childhood trauma.’
Argento added: ‘I am not guilty and I would like to go back to the X Factor to do my job.
‘My children are proud of me, Italy wants me, and I have not done anything that I’m accused of.’
Argento, 43, opened up during an interview on Italian news show Non è l’Arena (pictured), proclaiming that she has done nothing she has been accused of by Jimmy Bennett
‘I am not guilty and I would like to go back to X Factor to do my job,’ Argento said as she defended herself on Sunday. ‘My children are proud of me, Italy wants me’
The MeToo movement leader said the interview made her both angry and sorry.
‘His eyes were glassy and there was no expression on his face,’ she said of Bennett. ‘I saw him as a child who then failed to pursue his career, a lost soul.’
Argento saved her harshest words for Rain Dove, the partner of her onetime close friend Rose McGowan.
This week McGowan apologized for claiming Dove had told her that Argento had been receiving nude pictures from Bennett since he was 12 years old.
‘On 27 August I released a statement about Asia Argento, which I now realized contained a number of facts that were not correct,’ McGowan said.
‘The most serious of these was that I said that the unsolicited nude text messages Asia received from Jimmy Bennett had been sent since Jimmy was 12 years old.’
‘In fact, I had misunderstood the messages that Asia exchanged with my partner Rain Dove, which made clear that Jimmy had sent Asia inappropriate text messages only after they met up again when he was 17.’
Argento’s appearance came a week after Jimmy Bennett, who has accused the actress of sexually assaulting him when he was 17, appeared on the show and said she had violated him
The MeToo movement leader said the interview made her both angry and sorry. ‘His eyes were glassy and there was no expression on his face,’ she said of Bennett
‘I deeply regret not correcting my mistake sooner and apologize to Asia for not doing so.’
But the apology was not enough for Argento, who said that Dove makes her sick.
She also claimed that Dove, McGowan, and Bennett were all people who were hungry for money.
Earlier this week Argento shared an exclusive statement with DailyMail.com to hit back at McGowan and Dove.
‘Although I appreciate the apology and the retraction, the shame of falsely being labeled a pedophile has caused unbearable distress,’ the statement read.
‘The consequences have led to me losing my job on X-factor Italy as well as other work opportunities and has had an unspeakable impact on my two young children.’
McGowan’s ‘treachery’ cut all the deeper, Argento told DailyMail TV, because it came at her darkest hour following boyfriend Anthony Bourdain’s shocking suicide.
‘I’ve endured all of this headache while still mourning the loss of my beloved partner Anthony Bourdain. It has almost destroyed me,’ she said.
Argento said she saw Bennett as a ‘lost soul’ who had filed to pursue his career in acting
Argento saved her harshest words for former friend Rose McGowan and her partner Rain Dove, calling them both hungry for money
‘I needed to take legal action because I want my name cleared. I still don’t understand why Rose couldn’t have done the right thing and retracted earlier when she knew she was just repeating the lies of her partner Rain Dove.’
Earlier this month Dove, 28, retracted her statements but McGowan doubled down on her own, riding out the deadline laid down by Argento after which she vowed to take legal action against her former friend.
Now Argento is viewing McGowan’s apology as too little too late.
‘The matter is far from over,’ she said. ‘I am currently seeking advice over criminal proceedings against Rain Dove for deception for financial gain.’
Argento dated Bourdain for two years before he took his own life in June, an event that she said plunged her into an abyss of grief.
Last week McGowan apologized for claiming Argento had been receiving nude pictures from Jimmy Bennett since he was 12 years old
Argento said she appreciated the apology but ‘the shame of falsely being labeled a pedophile has caused unbearable distress’
The actress told Non è l’Arena that Bourdain’s suicide was an ‘unimaginable moment’ that left her feeling guilty for not seeing his pain.
‘He had never shown it to me,’ she added. ‘It was Bourdain who protected me, I was the depressed one. He told me that we would be happy.’
‘He gave me the best two years of my life.’
Argento said she does not know how she is still standing after both Bourdain’s death and the sexual assault allegations.
The Italian actress revealed she even had to send her son to live with her father in the US after people began to call her a pedophile.
‘My children have suffered so much,’ she said, holding back tears. ‘It’s not an easy time.’
Bennett (left) first wrote a letter to Asia Argento (right), threatening to make public a sexual encounter between them that took place in California when he was 17 and she was 37
Dove (left) retracted her statements earlier this month but McGowan (right) refused to admit she was mistaken until last week
Earlier this week Argento broke her silence to DailyMail TV to speak of her rift from McGowan, the fellow MeToo activist whom she once considered a ‘sister’.
And she also revealed that Dove told her Bourdain died with a prostitute after injecting heroin through his neck .
Argento shared text messages with McGowan and Dove which she said backed her astonishing tale.
In the texts Dove tells her the prostitute was wearing a hijab, that someone had obtained Bourdain’s toxicology report, and that he had hanged himself because he did not want it to be known he had overdosed. None of those claims were true.
The actress also spoke of her ordeal of being accused of driving him to suicide by cheating on him, revealing that they had an open relationship.
Argento told Non è l’Arena that her partner Anthony Bourdain’s suicide was an ‘unimaginable moment’ that left her feeling guilty for not seeing his pain
And Argento addressed the accusations by Bennett, who worked with the Italian actress and director when he was just nine.
She broke down in tears as she told DailyMailTV: ‘I was the one who was assaulted. It was painful.’
Argento repeated in the interview that she was the victim and ‘froze’ when Bennett jumped on her when he was 17 years old.
The revelation in August that Argento had sex with Bennett and then agreed to pay him $380,000 four years later hit the actress and the MeToo movement like a bomb.
Argento initially denied they had had sex. But when texts leaked two days later that showed her saying ‘He jumped me’, Argento said through an attorney that she was the victim, not Bennett.
A week later, McGowan released a lengthy statement saying that Dove had told her that Argento had slept with Bennett.
‘Rain also shared that Asia had stated that she’d been receiving unsolicited nudes of Jimmy since he had been 12. Asia mentioned in these texts that she didn’t take any action on those images,’ McGowan initially claimed.
Argento attacked those claims and told DailyMail TV: ‘This has destroyed my life. These lies have destroyed my life.’
Argento repeated in the interview that she was the victim and ‘froze’ when Bennett jumped on her when he was 17 years old
Last October Argento was among the first alleged Weinstein victims to speak up and be named in a New Yorker article that started a swell that built to what Argento calls the ‘MeToo tsunami.’
People who had never heard of the Italian – who has won numerous awards in her native country including a David di Donatello, the Italian equivalent of an Oscar – were suddenly talking about her.
And the fact that she was dating Bourdain only added to the luster of her global celebrity.
Bennett was among those watching Argento’s growing fame and, one month after the New Yorker article, he wrote to the woman who played his mother in the 2004 movie The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.
In his letter Bennett threatened to make public the sexual encounter that took place between them in a California hotel room.