Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing
A model who alleges Kanye West choked her on a music video set has told the BBC she was left feeling "suffocated, unsure and scared".
Jennifer An, a former contestant on America's Next Top Model, is suing the rapper, now known as Ye, over an encounter she alleges took place in 2010.
She told the BBC's Fame Under Fire podcast that West choked her and stuck his fingers in her mouth to simulate oral sex while filming a sequence for a music video in which he was making a cameo appearance.
Lawyers for the rapper do not deny the encounter took place, but have argued it was part of an "intense and provocative theatrical performance", as West was trying to emulate a scene from the film American Psycho.
BBC News has contacted his representatives for further comment.
West has become a contentious figure in recent years for his offensive and often antisemitic remarks and pro-Hitler music and merchandise.
The rapper has since apologised for his antisemitism and said his erratic behaviour is partly due to previous diagnoses of autism and bipolar disorder.
An was 24 when she was hired to appear in the US music video for La Roux's hit song In For The Kill. The model said she did not know at that stage that the rapper would be on set.
But when she turned up for the shoot at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, An alleges West arrived and took over the set, before assaulting her.
At the time, An's career had received a boost after her appearance on America's Next Top Model in 2009, and she attended a casting call for the music video the following year.
Speaking to podcast presenter Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty, An said the team were mid-shoot when the crew members suddenly stopped work and started "running around the Chelsea Hotel, they're like, 'Kanye's coming, Kanye's coming'."
Shortly after that, she said, the models "were lined up in the hallway" for West's arrival, before the rapper "came through and chose three girls to be in the scene with him", including An.
After starting to film his section of the music video, An alleges West "couldn't remember his lines", shouted cut, and turned his attention to shooting a different scene.
West then pulled one chair in front of the camera, An alleges, and positioned himself in a chair behind the camera, facing An but out of shot.
"I didn't know what was gonna happen," she said. "I was given no direction. I was just told to sit in this chair."
After the music started and the cameras were rolling, An said: "All of a sudden he just reaches a hand out and starts choking me, and I'm just not sure what's happening.
"And then, he pulled his other hand out and starts choking me with both hands, and then starts smearing my makeup all over my face and sticking his hands inside of my mouth."
An said the way West used his hands in her mouth "simulated oral sex", adding: "I feel like he was like trying to touch as much as he could."
She added West was also smearing her make-up on her face "in a way that just felt wrong".
An said there were a lot of people on the shoot, adding that they did not intervene and "were so still and just there, staring at me".
The BBC has contacted Universal Music Group, La Roux's record label, for comment.
An said the encounter ended when West "yelled something like, 'this is art, I'm Picasso'.
"And shortly after that, he was just like 'OK, I got what I want'. But he just abruptly got up and left," An said.
Asked if she tried to stop West while the alleged encounter was taking place, An said: "No, I didn't because I didn't know what I was doing... I was more frozen, it's like 'I could lose my job'."
An told the podcast that she found the alleged encounter "scary", adding that West did not speak to her before, during or afterwards.
West did not end up appearing in the released version of the In For The Kill music video, although he featured as a guest rapper on a remix of the song.
After the alleged encounter, An said she spoke to La Roux, real name Elly Jackson, who apologised for what had happened.
"And then I was like, 'you're not gonna air that, right? Like, you're not gonna share that with anyone, because I can't have my mum see that'. And she [Jackson] was like, no, of course not, I would never," An said.
In 2024, An got back in touch with La Roux via a direct message on Instagram asking if she remembered the alleged incident.
The singer responded saying she did, adding: "I could never forget that, it was horrific." Those messages have been submitted to the court as corroborating evidence.
In the Instagram messages, seen by Fame Under Fire, La Roux told An: "[West] knew exactly what he was doing, he thought it was funny."
After the encounter, La Roux said in the Instagram message: "He whispered to me 'I bet you think I just put women back about 10 years'. I responded, 'You just put women back about 500 years'."
The BBC has asked La Roux for further comment.
An filed her civil lawsuit against West later in 2024 under New York City's Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, which temporarily extends the statute of limitations for sexual assault survivors.
The case has not yet gone to trial and West's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss it earlier this year, saying that he should be protected by the First Amendment which safeguards free speech because the encounter occurred in the course of producing expressive art.
West's lawyers have argued An did not object at any point, nor express a lack of consent to participate or attempt to leave the performance.
They said An was "by all interpretations of her complaint... a consenting participant in the stage performance", and that West said the encounter was supposed to be an homage to American Psycho "which incidentally may have caused the Plaintiff [An] to have difficulty breathing".
The BBC has asked West to clarify whether he spoke to An before the alleged action took place on set, to explain his plan or ask for her permission, but has not received a response.
An's lawyer, Jesse Weinstein, told Fame Under Fire that it would be a "really dangerous precedent to set" for artists to feel they were allowed to "basically do whatever they want to, whomever they want in creative spaces, and get away with it as long as they call it art".
Source: BBC News - World
