A former assistant to the actor Vin Diesel alleged in a lawsuit Thursday that the Fast & Furious franchise star had her fired hours after he forced her to grab his penis and masturbated in front of her inside an Atlanta hotel room in 2010.
Asta Jonasson alleges that Diesel, whose real name is Mark Sinclair, was filming the movie Fast Five when he’d gone out partying one night. After returning to a suite at the St. Regis Hotel, the lawsuit says Jonasson was instructed to enter Diesel’s room sometime after midnight because he wasn’t picking up the phone. Once inside, however, Jonasson said Diesel refused to use his phone and pulled her onto his bed. The lawsuit says Jonasson was able to get away from the bed, but Diesel ordered her to not leave the suite.
The lawsuit, obtained by The Daily Beast, said that Diesel approached Jonasson again and groped her breasts and kissed her chest, despite her giving verbal pleas to stop.
Jonasson claims that she screamed and ran toward the bathroom when Diesel allegedly pulled her dress up and tried taking off her underwear. The lawsuit said the actor followed, however, and didn’t relent on his sexual advances—pinning Jonasson up against a wall and placing her hand on his erect penis, which was covered only by his underwear.
The lawsuit says Jonasson was “disgusted” and quickly pulled her hand away before telling Diesel she would not touch him. That’s when Diesel allegedly removed his underwear and began masturbating while “leaning against Ms. Jonasson and keeping her pinned to the wall with the left side of his body.”
Jonasson said she was trapped and fearful of angering Diesel, who was “physically larger and much stronger” than her, so she closed her eyes and tried to dissociate with what was happening. Once Diesel eventually released her while “groaning,” the lawsuit said Jonasson was “frozen in a state of shock” as he entered the bathroom.
Moments later, Jonasson claims Diesel walked by and said “No one can say shit about Asta” as he left the room. The lawsuit said Jonasson stayed in the hotel suite, fearful of interacting with Diesel again.
“As she stood alone in the suite, Ms. Jonasson suddenly felt a mix of relief that the sexual assault was over and panic, and her heart felt like it was about to explode out of her chest,” the lawsuit said.
Jonasson’s terror wasn’t over just yet, however, according to the lawsuit. It said Diesel returned to the suite searching for his phone, to which Jonasson pointed out that it was in his pocket. He allegedly responded, “Good job,” and left the suite for good.
According to the lawsuit, Jonasson received a call hours later from Samantha Vincent, Diesel’s sister and the president of his company, to tell her she’d been fired as Diesel’s assistant—a job she held for only a week.
“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,” the suit alleged. “Ms. Jonasson felt like she was a piece of trash to be discarded. Ms. Jonasson felt helpless, her self esteem was demolished, and she questioned her own skills and whether a successful career would require her to trade her body for advancement.”
Bryan Freedman, Diesel’s attorney, told Vanity Fair in a statement that his client “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 nine-day employee,” Freedman said. “There is clear evidence which completely refutes these outlandish allegations.”
Jonasson’s lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles under California’s “Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act,” a 2022 law that’s given victims of sexual assault a one-year window to file civil lawsuits against their alleged abusers. The temporary legislation provides a unique opportunity, like the New York Survivor’s Act, for victims to bring assault claims to a civil court even if the alleged incident occurred outside the statute of limitations.
The lawsuit said Jonasson, who’d signed a nondisclosure agreement when she took the job, is “unwilling to remain silent any longer.” It added that she “seeks to reclaim her agency and justice for the suffering she endured at the hands of Vin Diesel.”
In addition to the sexual battery allegation, Jonasson also stated claims of gender discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation, and negligent supervision. It included Diesel’s companies, One Race Productions and One Race Films, as codefendants.