Bryan Singer, director of the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, the X-Men films, and The Usual Suspects, has been accused of sexual misconduct by several men, in a new Atlantic investigation by reporters Alex French and Maximillian Potter. Multiple men in the story say that Singer, who has been the subject of similar allegations for years, had sexual encounters with them when they were underaged. In a statement to the Atlantic, Singer’s lawyer denied that the filmmaker has ever had sex with, or had a sexual preference for, underaged men.
One of new accusers in the story is Victor Valdovinos, who at 13 years old was an extra in the 1997 Singer film Apt Pupil, which became the subject of a lawsuit from multiple underaged plaintiffs who alleged they were pressured into appearing nude in a shower scene. (The suit was settled for an undisclosed sum.) Valdovinos, a student at the high school where Apt Pupil was filmed, told the Atlantic that Singer recruited him for the same scene after approaching him at a urinal in the school bathroom. According to Valdinos, while he was sitting on a locker room bench waiting to shoot the scene and wearing only a towel, Singer “grabbed my genitals and started masturbating it,” and “rubbed his front part on me.” Valdovinos does not appear in the finished Apt Pupil film, but the Atlantic verified his description of the set, and his father remembers dropping him off for shooting.
The story also includes allegations from an anonymous man, identified only as Andy, who told the Atlantic he had sex with Singer when he was 15 years old, and multiple times after that, and that he told Singer his age beforehand. Another anonymous man, identified as Eric, said that he had sex with Singer when he was 17, and for several years after that, and that he also told Singer his age beforehand. Andy and Eric’s descriptions of their initial encounters with Singer, at mansion parties thrown by the founders of a Singer-affiliated company called Digital Entertainment Network, are consistent with past rumors and allegations about Singer’s behavior. In 2004, Marc Collins-Rector, one of the founders of DEN, pleaded guilty to multiple charges of transporting a minor across state lines for the purpose of sex.
The Atlantic article also includes an interview with Cesar Sanchez-Guzman, who claimed in a lawsuit publicized in 2017 that Singer anally raped him in 2003, when he was 17. As of yet, Singer has not suffered much professional fallout from the accusations. He was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody weeks before production finished, but not because of any alleged sexual conduct; he’d allegedly feuded with cast members including star Rami Malek, and was an unreliable presence on set. And as the Atlantic points out, Millennium Films recently signed him as director of the upcoming fantasy film Red Sonja, for a reported $10 million.
