Avengers actor Jeremy Renner has reportedly dismissed the harassment claims made by Chinese director Yi Zhou, describing them as “totally inaccurate and untrue”.
Zhou accused Renner in a series of posts on Monday on her Instagram handle, which included “#Cancel” and “#CancelJeremyRenner” hashtags.
She claims the 54-year-old sent her personal and intimate photographs of himself and exhibited disturbing behavior on one occasion that prompted her to lock herself in a room.
However, the actor's representative denied the claims. “The allegations being made are totally inaccurate and untrue,” a representative for Renner told the entertainment news outlet Variety.
As per Zhou, she allegedly started dating Renner after he contacted her in June via “a string of unwanted/unsolicited pornographic images of himself via DM (Instagram) and Whatsapp” and then made her believe she is in love with him. “I believed in him/the power of love.”
The filmmaker explained in her posts she later discovered the actor sent the same messages to others.
She also claims she has been “destroyed by a set up (of) smear fans campaigns”.
“This experience really shows the dark side of Hollywood and the smear campaign to deter women and Asian female filmmakers and women in general... I’m appalled but happy to read also many support from friends and media that will continue to uncover domestic abuse, abuse of women and the unwanted unsolicited porn attack against innocent young women,” she wrote in one of the posts.
Before the harassment claims surfaced, the two had been reportedly working together on multiple projects. Zhou is directing the documentary Chronicles of Disney, which also features the actor.
Renner is also a voice actor in Zhou's Stardust Future: Stars and Scars, which claims to be the first animated feature entirely created by AI.