Actress Jing Lusi told the Guardian she feared UK actor-writer-director Noel Clarke would use an honorary Bafta award he was in line to receive to “dupe girls and lure them back to his lair” or use it to “silence them”, London’s High Court has heard.
The actress is the latest witness to give evidence in Clarke’s libel battle against Guardian News and Media (GNM), publisher of the Guardian.
Clarke is suing GNM over seven articles and a podcast, including an article in April 2021 that said 20 women who knew him professionally had come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct and bullying.
Clarke denies the allegations, while GNM is defending its reporting as being both true and in the public interest.
On Friday (March 28), audio of a conversation between Lusi and Guardian journalists weeks before the articles were published was played in court, where she discussed Bafta’s announcement that it would give Clarke the outstanding British contribution to cinema award.
In the conversation, she said the award was “a loaded gun”.
She said: “He is either going to use it to dupe girls and lure them back to his lair or use it to silence them.”
Referring to Clarke’s first Bafta win in 2009, when he won the then Orange Rising Star award, voted on by the public, Lusi also said he “dined out on that ticket”, and he “could not stop talking about it” when the pair worked together on SAS: Red Notice, which filmed in Budapest in 2018.
In court, Clarke’s barrister, Philip Williams, said Lusi’s claims were “outrageous”, and asked whether she wished to withdraw the “lair” allegation.
Lusi replied: “No.”
Williams later said: “You were part of the campaign against Mr Clarke’s Bafta. That was fuelled by jealousy, spite and the fact you thought that he was mediocre.”
Lusi replied: “That is not correct.”
The actress most recently starred in ITV thriller Red Eye and has credits including Sky’s Gangs Of London.
Clarke was presented with Bafta’s outstanding contribution to British cinema honorary award in April 2021. However, Bafta was forced to withdraw it within weeks following the misconduct allegations made against Clarke.
Aspiring writer
In her witness statement, Lusi said that at a dinner with Clarke and others during filming of SAS: Red Notice, she said she was aspiring to become a writer and suggested they could do a read-through of a script she had written.
In her statement, she said: “Noel seemed keen at the idea, so I asked ‘where?’, to which he responded, without missing a beat, ‘in my bed’ or ‘in my bedroom’.
“I was taken aback and said ‘what?’ and he repeated ‘in my bedroom’, the second time playing mock-shy, sipping on this drink. This was all in front of the others.”
In court, Williams said: “The opportunity was there to go through the script.”
He continued: “He would read the script through in front of other people. There would be no reason to separate you off.”
Lusi replied: “I did not have the script with me. I did not mean right there at that dinner.”
She continued: “He said something that was not about the work but sexualising a legitimate idea I had involving other actors.”
She added: “He turned it into a sexual connotation.”
Lusi also later claimed at the same dinner, Clarke asked to look at her hands, which she refused.
She claimed Clarke replied: “Why? You won’t let a Black man touch you?”
In court, Williams told Lusi that Clarke “never said” the comment, to which Lusi replied: “He absolutely did. I found it horrifying.”
Williams suggested to Lusi that during her and Clarke’s time in Budapest, the pair engaged in “sexual banter and conversation”, which she “volunteered”.
Lusi told the court she had made some disclosures about her sex life to Clarke, but described herself as a “prude” and said he “had a way of making the most innocuous thing sexual” and was “very probing”.
In her witness statement, Lusi then described another dinner between the pair in Budapest at which Clarke “told me in explicit terms that he had fantasised about me, describing to me what he wanted to do to me”, which she said left her “feeling so disgusted”.
She later claimed he threatened her, stating: “When I rebutted what Noel had said, that’s when the threat came.
“He said something to the effect of: ‘Don’t tell anyone about this, or I will find out about it. It’s a small world, I know everyone, if you do tell anyone I will find out about it and I’ll come for you’ or ‘I’ll get you.’ It was a clear threat.
“I think I agreed to what he asked, more out of shock and disbelief in the moment than out of fear.”
In court, Williams asked Lusi why she did not confront Clarke the following day, to which she responded: “You are asking me why I did not confront the man who I felt had harassed me and threatened me.”
She continued: “I think he knew he was out of order. If he did not know that, why did he silence me?”
She added: “I did not feel comfortable.”
The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn is due to conclude in April, with a decision expected in writing at a later date.
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