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Just a week after former actor and comedian Russell Brand was convicted of rape and sexual assault in a U.K. court, Netflix has released a documentary, “Russell Brand: Open Secret,” exploring his rise to fame and pivot
to political influencer even as rumors about his unsettling behavior intensified.
Speaking to old roommates, ex-partners and fellow comedians, the documentary, from 72 Films, includes rare archive footage of Brand’s earliest gigs, including one where he performed with a sack over his head and another offering audience members pornography. He would repeatedly joke about lewd behavior, even once saying on stage “I raped someone once.”
See some of the most shocking and discomforting insights from “Russell Brand: Open Secret” below.
Brand Once Worked as a Teacher – and Dated One of His Students
Around 1999, before his media career took off, Brand was an out-of-work actor who needed to pay the rent so he found a job at a language school in London, where he apparently began dating one of his pupils, Amanda Alguero Alejos, according to the doc.
Alejos says she propositioned Brand and that the aspiring comedian was “nice and sweet” when they met. The couple dated for some time but as his fame grew, there were “too many girls around him all the time and we couldn’t have intimacy together anymore,” she says in the doc. “And at the end he admits he had a sex addiction.” Alejos also alleges he took “a lot of” drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Brand has publicly said he’s been sober since 2002.
He Was Sacked from MTV For Dressing up As Osama Bin Laden
Brand was pushing boundaries from his earliest days in showbiz. After landing his breakthrough gig on MTV in the U.K., he was unceremoniously sacked when he decided to dress up as Osama Bin Laden the day after 9/11, his former roommate confirms in the documentary. Brand then snagged a show on little-known network U.K. Play, where in one episode he challenged his father, Ronald, to a fight in the boxing ring. The duo had had a difficult relationship and, as the roommate explains: “Russell decided to settle this once and for all and thought it was a good idea to put it on camera.”
Brand’s Father Hired Sex Workers For His Son
Brand has admitted in books and TV shows that when he was younger he went with his father to Thailand where Ronald hired two sex workers – one for Brand and one for himself – and they cavorted together in a hotel room side by side. The documentary includes archive footage of the duo discussing the experience on a TV show. “Do you remember that first night?” Brand asks his father, who replies: “Oh yeah. You fell in love every time.”
Allegations of Coercive Control
One contributor to the documentary is Jordan Martin, an ex-girlfriend of Brand’s, who describes how he was controlling, abusive and repeatedly cheated on her. She alleges he sexually assaulted her after an argument and also that he made her brush her teeth until she was bleeding. “He wanted me to taste anonymous,” she says. “He didn’t want me to be familiar to him and so he was asking me to brush my teeth but it was just never enough.”
Last week another ex-girlfriend of Brand’s, Jemima Goldsmith, also accused the former comedian of “violence and abuse,” saying she once had to call police to remove him from her house “during a violent incident.”
Brand’s “Shapeshifting” Persona
The documentary shows how, as Brand’s star began to fall following his divorce from Katy Perry and increasing rumors about his behavior, the comedian turned to politics as a way to bolster his fanbase. First he glommed onto the far Left, presenting himself as a revolutionary figure writing columns in the New Statesman and the Guardian, and then the far Right, as he began recycling conspiracy theories, courting an audience on both sides of the aisle who might be more likely to believe his innocence if the allegations about him were ever made public.
The Sunday Times reporters who broke the first story alleging his sexual harassment and abuse say when they offered Brand a right of reply they received a letter from his lawyers that said their client “believes there is a deeply concerning agenda to all this, namely the fact that he is an alternative media broadcaster competing with mainstream media.”
Brand Once Joked: “I Raped Someone”
Archive footage throughout the documentary shows how Brand repeatedly and unabashedly joked throughout his career about being a sexual predator. An early clip from MTV shows him speaking on a cell phone before he says to the camera “that was the Metropolitan Police Force; apparently I’m wanted for a series of terrible crimes” while in an on-stage Q&A, filmed some years later, he describes himself as “just a bloke from Essex, from a single-parent family that’s a pretty comprehensive show-off. Oh and also I raped someone once.”
Brand was convicted of rape and sexual assault last week. He has been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison.
