On Friday, a Twitter user posted a note accusing Baby Driver star Ansel Elgort of sexually assaulting her right after she turned 17 (via ScreenRant). She says he was 20 at the time and they met after she reached out to him on social media just to say she was a fan (and not expecting a response, because she was “just a kid”). She says they eventually had sex, and even though she was “sobbing in pain,” she says he made her think “this is how sex was supposed to be.” She says she has since suffered panic attacks and PTSD from the alleged assault but wanted to tell her story because it’s time to “finally heal” an to “tell other girls who have been through the same shit as me, you’re not alone.”
The post has since been deleted, but Elgort has now released a statement of his own (via Variety) in which he denies the allegation of sexual assault and says that his relationship with the accuser was “brief, legal, and entirely consensual.” He adds that he “did not handle the breakup well” and just “stopped responding to her,” which he says was an “immature and cruel thing to do.” He says his post is a “belated apology” for that specifically (though a breakup was never mentioned in the accuser’s original post) and that he’s “disgusted and deeply ashamed” for the way he behaved when he “disappeared.”
Ansel Elgort is currently set to star in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story opposite newcomer Rachel Zegler, who was cast back in January.