After several allegations of sexual harassment, Steven Seagal has now been accused of rape and sexual assault.
Regina Simons was an 18-year-old extra on the set of Seagal’s 1994 film “Deadly Ground” when she alleges that he raped her in his home.
Simons claimed that Seagal, now 65, invited her to what he said was a wrap party for the film, but that when she arrived, she was the only other person there. When she asked him where everyone else went, she says, Seagal told her that they’d already left.
“He took me into this room and then just closed the door and started kissing me,” Simons told The Wrap in a report released late Thursday. “He then took my clothes off and before I knew it he was on top of me, raping me … I wasn’t sexually active yet. People always talk about fight-or-flight. But no one talks about the freeze.”
“The only way I’m able to describe it is I literally felt like I left my body,” Simons said. “I think because of the situation I was completely caught off guard. Tears were coming down my face and I know that it hurt. He was three times my size … I was crying when he was on top of me. Even now, my 43-year-old mind knows how to process this and understand what a loving relationship is and what consensual sex is. And there was none of that.”
After the alleged incident was over, Simons says that Seagal let her leave almost as if nothing had transpired, but continued to contact her for months afterward.
“All I remember is him asking me if I needed any money,” she said. “I shook my head and ran towards my car. I cried the whole way home.”
“I just told the lady I was living with to not take his calls, and he finally just stopped,” Simons said.
The woman, Patricia Alaniz, corroborated Simons’ account, telling The Wrap, “His behavior, calling so often, it felt predatory to me. He was a middle-aged man, married at the time, and she was young and naive. I thought he was grooming her.”
Simons claimed she told her Mormon bishop about the incident, which her bishop confirmed to The Wrap, but that she declined to come forward publicly with allegations against the action star.
“I wasn’t even allowed to date so for me it was a shameful thing,” Simons said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, how could this have happened?’ So, I blamed a lot of it on myself and tried to pretend it didn’t happen.”
Another woman, Faviola Dadis, accused Seagal of sexually assaulting her in what he’d told her would be a “private audition” at his hotel room in 2002.
“Steven said the audition was to see my figure. I was told to wear a bikini under my clothes, and that the PA and casting director would also be there. As this is quite standard in the modeling industry, I agreed to the audition,” Dadis wrote on Instagram in November. “I was escorted to the room by Steven’s personal assistant. I assumed the PA and casting director were already in the room, but when I arrived no one was there but Steven and his security, who stood blocking the door.”
“I noted this was a bit strange, but he apologized and explained they had other obligations,” she wrote. “Steven asked if I would take off my clothes and walk for him in my bikini. After doing so (he was on the couch and I was at a far enough distance to do a catwalk for him), he approached me and said he wanted to act out a romantic scene. I was hesitant and expressed this, then he started fondling my breasts and grabbing my crotch.”
She continued, “I quickly yelled ‘This audition is over!’ and tried to run out of the room but was blocked by his security. I started making a noticeable amount of noise, and his security realized I would alert someone and let me leave. I never reported this to anyone out of fear that someone like Steven, with such a huge amount of power, influence, and money would easily win a legal battle; and furthermore that I would damage my career. However, as others are now speaking out against Steven, I would like to do the same.”
Simons and Dadis told The Wrap they each filed police reports with the LAPD about their respective allegations against Seagal.
Jenny McCarthy, Julianna Margulies, Portia de Rossi and several other women have accused Seagal of sexual misconduct spanning decades.
An attorney for Seagal did not immediately return a request for comment.