The BBC has aired a documentary in which ten women accuse actor and musician Jared Leto of sexual misconduct, with four alleging he assaulted them when they were underage. Leto denied the accusations in a statement issued through his representatives.
The film, titled "Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret," brings together women who say they were fans of his work in film and music and approached him as teenagers. Nine of the ten women are making their accounts public for the first time, according to the BBC.
The women say they met Leto between 2002 and 2016, when he was in his 30s and 40s. He is now 54.
One accuser says she was sexually assaulted in a hotel bathroom when she was 17. A second says her encounter was consensual but that Leto dismissed a conversation about the legal age of consent in that U.S. state being 18.
A woman identified as Etta told the documentary she was 16 when Leto made sexually explicit phone calls to her. She was later sent a non-disclosure agreement intended to prevent her from speaking about her relationship with him, a document the BBC says it obtained. She refused to sign it.
The documentary also cites a January 2012 Facebook post by DJ Allie Teilz referencing Leto allegedly trying to force himself on her backstage. After it resurfaced, she began receiving messages from women who described similar experiences at ages between 14 and 16.
Former workers speak out
Former workers for Leto's band Thirty Seconds to Mars told the documentary they were uncomfortable watching him interact with teenage girls and invite them backstage or to the house where they worked. They said the band also contacted modeling agencies to distribute VIP tickets, with the request that only women be sent, who were then invited backstage.
The documentary notes that accusations had been circulating in Hollywood during the same years Leto was building his film career. He won an Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club in 2013 after earlier roles in Fight Club and American Psycho. The BBC said it corroborated several of the women's accounts with friends and relatives who were told about the encounters at the time, and in some cases reviewed photographs and messages that supported their stories.
Leto, 54, denied the allegations in a statement released through his representatives. He said he had never sexually assaulted anyone in his life and called the accusations absolutely and categorically false.
