'No Time to Die' Director Cary Joji Fukunaga Faces More Troubling Allegations

By Daniel S. Levine

Sisters Hannah and Cailin Loesch accused No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga of sexual misconduct on multiple occasions after they met on the set of the 2018 Netflix series Maniac. The twins, who interview actors for their Double Talk website, accused Fukunaga of making unwanted advances toward Cailin and asked probing questions about their sex lives. The Loesch twins came forward after Betty star Rachelle Vinberg shared her own disturbing experiences with Fukunaga on Instagram last week.

In their TwitLonger essay, the Loesch sisters said they met Fukunaga when they were 20 on the set of Maniac. The scenes were filmed at a Long Island mansion, and Fukunaga would allegedly leave the show's stars to talk with them. He asked them questions about their family and hometown. "Over the next three years, we'd all three be wrapped up a hot-and-cold relationship that the two of us hoped would mold itself into one of two categories: a simple trio of friends, or a romantic relationship between one of us and Cary," the sisters wrote.

In the beginning, Fukunaga sent "flirty" Instagram messages to Cailin. Then, he invited them to join him and his friends at a Soho club, where they "both wound up blacked out in the bathroom, for the first time in our lives." The night ended with them both "pressed against" Fukunaga's body on the dance floor, with them coming in and out of consciousness. Their best friend insisted the two not go home with Fukunaga.

A year after the club incident, Fukunaga invited the Loesch sisters repeatedly to London, where he was directing the James Bond movie No Time to Die. They accepted the invitation, but Fukunaga canceled on them the moment they said they would only go if they could bring their friends along. At that point, their friends tried to tell them they were being manipulated, but they "simply felt guilty." They thought about going to see him without their friends after all, but they decided against that because they were worried about getting their friends involved.

After the coronavirus pandemic began, Fukunaga allegedly started inviting them to his farmhouse in Upstate New York. They were not comfortable visiting anyone outside their inner circle, but he still asked if they would like a "visitor" at their parents' home in Pennsylvania. Even though his motorcycle was being worked on in Virginia, Fukunaga allegedly came to the Loeschs' parents' home.

"The red flags were there, but we chose to let them slide. That is our fault," Hannah and Cailin wrote. " While on the road, just a few hours away, Cary messaged us requesting that he'd we all 'drink all night.'" That night, Fukunaga told the sisters stories about his family and his issues with fame at a local restaurant. After they left, Fukunaga "grabbed Cailin by the leg and commented that she seemed cold." When they got home, he started asking them if they were virgins and what they thought about threesomes. They said they would never do that, but he told them performers do that often in pornography and thought "incest is fine 'if all parties are okay with it.'" Then, he asked them if they thought they were drugged at the Soho club.

"We chalked up his bold comments to a curious nature and lack of emotional maturity," the sisters wrote. "They say that fame can stunt a person in some ways, and that's what we thought we were seeing in Cary. He'd fall asleep in our laps and ask for his hair to be stroked. He'd tell family stories with what seemed like genuine sadness. We felt sorry for him. We no longer saw him as the poised auteur we'd met on set years ago, but a vulnerable, maybe even lost, soul who was only seeking connection. We both truly liked him."

A few weeks after the incident in Pennsylvania, the two went to Fukunaga's New York City penthouse. There, he allegedly asked them about birth control and what they would do if they got pregnant. Later, Fukunaga allegedly showed them No Time To Die, long before it was released to theaters. During the movie, Fukunaga allegedly "put his hand up underneath Cailin's skirt and massaged gently" and then pulled her on top of him, even with Hannah still sitting near them. "Cailin lie there limply, just as terrified of what it would say about her if she followed his lead as it would if she didn't," the sisters wrote. "Then, she climbed off. He seemed disappointed, but invited us both to 'drop acid' and do molly at his house upstate that weekend, his next plan already in motion."

The next day, Cailin texted Fukunaga, telling him he had to stop flirting with both of them. They still met later that day, with Fukunaga allegedly telling Cailin that if they thought he wanted a threesome with them, "it was our anxiety disorders talking." Fukunaga's mood changed as the conversation went on, insisting that he "talks about sex" with everyone he knows and asked if he knew how bad it would look for him if they went public with the story. The two never saw Fukunaga again after Cailin called an Uber and left him. He sent one last text to Hannah, claiming the "whole thing was a big understanding" and he had "nothing but respect" for them. They never responded.

At the end of their essay, the Loesch sisters said they did not share their story to start a "witch hunt" against Fukunaga. "We're sharing it because we know we aren't alone in our experience, and the way it has stayed with us and worn on our hearts," the sisters wrote. "We've learned how powerful and validating it is to hear that someone else has stood in our shoes and yes, they are painful. Sometimes manipulation is less of a scream and more of a million little whispers: and just as years of pain can begin with a whisper, so can change."

A few days before the Loesch sisters came forward, Vinberg accused Fukunaga of putting forward a fake face when he says he supports women's rights. She said he often called women "whores" in private and is "someone that's like literally dangerous, horrible, and he's out here." In October 2021, Raeden Greer accused Fukunaga of firing her from True Detective because she refused to go topless. Fukunaga's representative declined to comment on the new allegations to The Wrap. 

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of