Asia Argento says being labelled "paedophile" has caused her a lot of hurts

Asia Argento, who is facing allegations of sexual misconduct levelled by Jimmy Bennett, said Sunday that being labelled a "paedophile" has caused her a lot of hurts.

The actor-director appeared in an interview with Italian TV channel La7's show "Non-e l'Arena" ("It's Not the Arena") and refuted claims by Bennett, saying it was he who assaulted her.

A week back on the same show, Bennett had reiterated his version of the story accusing Argento of rape.

"The thing that hurt me most was being called 'paedophile'. I have children and that is a stigma that I do not wish for anyone," she said on the show, as translated by The Hollywood Reporter.

Argento, who was fired from the jury panel of "X Factor Italia" last month owing to the allegations, demanded her job back

"I would like to go back to 'X Factor', to do my job, because my children are proud of me, Italy wants me and I have not done anything that I'm accused of," she said.

On Bennett's interview on the show, Argento said it made her angry.

"It made me angry, but it made me especially sorry because his eyes were glassy and there was no expression on his face. I saw him as a child who then failed to pursue his career, a lost soul," she said.

Argento, who co-starred with Bennett in 2004 film "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things", which she also wrote and directed, said she saw him "like a lost son".

She said that they had arranged to meet in Los Angeles and he had asked her to practice lines with him for a script, "like in the old days".

But when he came to her hotel, neither did he bring any script, nor was he accompanied by a chaperone.

"I did not know he was underage, I thought he was 18 because he had also told me this," she added.

Argento said when they met she did not recognise him and said he had even "denounced" his parents, which made her sad.

"I told him, 'OK, Jimmy, maybe we can do a movie together, I can find a part for you.’ He lit up and we hugged at that moment. Then he began to kiss me and touch me in a way that was not that of a child with his mother, but that of a boy with crazy hormones."

She claimed Bennett "literally jumped" on her and put her "sideways across the bed".

"He did what he had to do. He didn't use a condom. It lasted for two minutes. He had an orgasm. I was cold, unable to move. Shocked, I asked him afterwards why he had done this, and he told me that I had been his sexual fantasy since he was 12 years old," Argento said.

A report by The New York Times obtained the legal documents in which actor Jimmy Bennett claimed that Argento assaulted him in a California hotel when he was only two months past his 17th birthday; the age of consent in California is 18.

On the reports that Argento settled a claim last year from Bennett that she assaulted him, the director brought a text message exchange with her former partner Anthony Bourdain where he said it was better to pay Bennett off, even though she did not want to "because they were lies".

(With inputs from agencies.)