Following the explosive allegations against Russell Brand, old stories about the comedian have resurfaced.
One that has come to the forefront comes from Kristen Bell, who co-starred with Brand in the 2008 film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
Over the weekend, news of a joint investigation by Channel 4, The Times and Sunday Times broke, which looked into a host of allegations against comedian and actor Russell Brand.
Channel 4’s Dispatches broadcast an extended documentary covering the allegations, with the newspapers also publishing their reports over the weekend.
Brand was accused by 4 different women of assaulting them between the years of 2006 and 2013, during the height of his fame. The allegations include r*pe, emotional abuse and sexual assault. All 4 of the women have chosen to remain anonymous.
One of the women accused Brand of r*ping her at his Los Angeles home, and sought treatment at a r*pe crisis centre the next day.
A second said that she entered into a relationship with him when she was sixteen years old and he was thirty-one. She claimed that during their time together Brand was emotionally abusive and controlling.
A third woman said that he assaulted her at his Los Angeles house, and threatened legal action if she told anyone.
The fourth accuser said that Brand sexually assaulted her, and also claimed that he was physically and emotionally abusive.
The investigation took place over several years, with journalists having accessed text messages, medical files and Brand’s biography.
Brand has denied all the accusations against him. In a statement shared to his social media, he said the accusations “pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream.”
“As I have written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” he said.
“Now during that time of promiscuity the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I am being transparent about it now as well.
“To see that transparency metastasised into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question – is there another agenda at play?”
In the wake of the allegations, the focus has turned to comments made regarding Brand in the past that provided potential warning signs of his alleged behaviour.
One of these comes from Kristen Bell, who co-starred alongside Brand in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
In an interview shortly after the film came out, Bell said, via the Mirror: “He didn’t try to mess with me or get in my pants. He knew I would lop his n**s off.”
In another interview, she said: “I made it really clear from the beginning that I would sock him in the b***s if he tried anything. So he was intimidated.”
“Actually, I loved working with Russell,” she said elsewhere. “I may be the only woman in the world who would shout that from the rooftops, but I did.”
Brand said of Bell: “Naturally Kristen would be the perfect woman for me. And the perfect guy, that’s still me.”
