Adult star James Deen has given his first interview in the wake of numerous assault allegations.
“I am completely baffled,” Deen said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Beast.
Nine women have accused Deen of assault since Stoya, porn star and Deen’s ex-girlfriend, tweeted in late November that Deen had once raped her. Over the next week, more women came forward to describe incidents ranging from forced oral sex to being hit in the face.
Additionally, Deen’s ex-girlfriend Joanna Angel spoke about her allegedly physically and emotionally abusive relationship with Deen, though she noted she was not accusing Deen of a crime. At least two other adult stars have also spoken about Deen’s inappropriate behavior on porn sets.
Deen, who has previously denied Stoya's allegations on Twitter, told the Daily Beast he was “shocked” by the accusations. He characterized them as either totally false, or a misrepresentation of events. In some cases, he said the alleged incidents were actually things that had occurred consensually during porn shoots.
“Most of these are descriptions of things on BDSM or rough sex sets,” he said. “When I am on set I am under instruction of the company who is paying me. I could describe the events of the scene I was in the other day and it could be just as dramatic.”
Deen suggested Stoya could have been motivated by jealousy over his new girlfriend, or by a desire to drive traffic to her website.
“The reason Stoya made this claim could be as simple as her finding out that my current girlfriend and I are moving in together. We have mutual friends, one of our friends notified Stoya of this information. It could be as calculated as Stoya trying to drive traffic to her website."
Stoya told The Guardian last week that she spoke out because she could no longer “bear the thought” of Deen getting the opportunity to hurt other women because she had stayed silent. She has also tweeted supported for other women who have accused Deen of abuse, as well as for Christy Mack, an adult star who was brutally beaten by MMA fighter War Machine last year.
Deen also claimed to The Daily Beast that “multiple women” told him that media has offered them “up to five thousand dollars” to talk about him.
“At this point I am just waiting for everyone who has ever disliked me ever from my entire life to come out with some extreme story or interpretation of how horrible I am,” he said.
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