George Takei has now been accused of sexual assault, with a former model giving an interview tonight saying that the Star Trek actor undressed and groped him while he was unconscious in his Los Angeles apartment. According to Scott Brunton, the man in question, the incident took place in 1981, when he was 23, and Takei was in his 40s.
Published by The Hollywood Reporter, Brunton’s account states that he originally met Takei at a bar, with the two exchanging phone numbers. He and Takei eventually went out to dinner, where Takei lent him a consoling ear about a recent break-up. Then they went back to the actor’s condo for a drink:
We have the drink and he asks if I would like another. And I said sure. So, I have the second one, and then all of a sudden, I begin feeling very disoriented and dizzy, and I thought I was going to pass out. I said I need to sit down and he said sit over here and he had the giant yellow beanbag chair. So I sat down in that and leaned my head back and I must have passed out.
The next thing I remember I was coming to and he had my pants down around my ankles and he was groping my crotch and trying to get my underwear off and feeling me up at the same time, trying to get his hands down my underwear. I came to and said, ‘What are you doing?!’ I said, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ He goes, ‘You need to relax. I am just trying to make you comfortable. Get comfortable.’ And I said, ‘No. I don’t want to do this.’ And I pushed him off and he said, ‘OK, fine.’ And I said I am going to go and he said, ‘If you feel you must. You’re in no condition to drive.’ I said, ‘I don’t care I want to go.’ So I managed to get my pants up and compose myself and I was just shocked. I walked out and went to my car until I felt well enough to drive home, and that was that.
Brunton says he met with Takei a few years ago, during the actor’s book tour, but couldn’t bring himself to question him about the incident. “I always wanted to ask him—I just felt really betrayed,” he said. “I thought I was a friend and here I am later, just another piece of meat. So I called him up at the hotel—I figured out which hotel he was at — and he said ‘Hi, Scott. I remember you.’ I wanted to ask him why. We met for coffee, and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was just too uncomfortable.”
Takei’s rep says the 80-year-old actor and social media star is currently out of the country, traveling in Japan and Australia, and isn’t available for comment.
Update: Takei has now responded to Brunton’s allegations on Twitter, denying that the incident ever occurred, and stating that he doesn’t remember ever having met him: