Netflix Releases Russell Brand Documentary a Week After Rape Conviction

Netflix has released Russell Brand: Open Secret, a documentary about the comedian, one week after he was convicted of rape and sexual assault in a U.K. court. The film was produced by 72 Films. Variety reports that it is built largely from archive footage and interviews, with several former partners speaking about their time with him.

Much of the film is older material from Brand's early career. It includes a clip of an early gig where he performed with a sack over his head. Another shows him offering audience members pornography. In one piece of archive footage, Brand is heard saying on stage, "I raped someone once."

The film also covers his time at MTV in the U.K. Brand was sacked after dressing up as Osama Bin Laden the day after the September 11 attacks, according to the documentary.

Several women speak in the film about their relationships with him. His ex-girlfriend Jordan Martin alleges that Brand sexually assaulted her after an argument. She also alleges that he made her brush her teeth until she bled, because he wanted her to "taste anonymous." Another former partner, Jemima Goldsmith, accused him of "violence and abuse." She says she once called the police to have him removed from her house during a violent incident.

The documentary also looks at Brand's life around 1999. He was working at a language school in London and dating one of his pupils, Amanda Alguero Alejos, the film says. Archive TV footage shows Brand and his father, Ronald, discussing how Ronald had hired two sex workers in Thailand, one for each of them. The pair were together, side by side, in a hotel room.

The film presents Brand's move into politics as a way of building his fanbase. It places that shift after his divorce from the singer Katy Perry, at a time when rumours about his behaviour were growing.

Brand was convicted in a U.K. court, and Netflix released the film a week later. The documentary sets out the allegations, along with the archive material and the accounts of the women who speak in it.