Model who alleges Kanye West choked her tells BBC she felt 'suffocated and scared'
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Jennifer An, a former America's Next Top Model contestant, told the BBC's Fame Under Fire podcast that Kanye West choked her with both hands, smeared her makeup, and stuck his fingers in her mouth to simulate oral sex while filming a sequence for La Roux's "In For The Kill" music video at the Chelsea Hotel in New York in 2010
- An filed a civil lawsuit against West 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
- West's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss earlier this year, arguing the encounter was protected First Amendment expressive art, that An was a "consenting participant," and that West was emulating a scene from the film American Psycho
- La Roux (Elly Jackson) corroborated the encounter in Instagram messages submitted to the court, calling it "horrific" and writing that West "knew exactly what he was doing, he thought it was funny," and recalling he whispered to her: "I bet you think I just put women back about 10 years"
- An alleges she was given no direction before the scene, that the large crew did not intervene, and that she froze because she feared losing her job; West did not speak to her before, during, or after the encounter, she said
- An's lawyer Jesse Weinstein told the podcast it would be a "really dangerous precedent to set" for artists to feel allowed to "basically do whatever they want, whomever they want in creative spaces, and get away with it as long as they call it art"
Why it matters: The lawsuit tests how far First Amendment artistic-expression defenses extend when a performer alleges non-consensual physical contact on a creative set, with Weinstein warning a dismissal would let artists "do whatever they want" under an art label; the case is also notable because La Roux's contemporaneous corroboration, preserved in 2024 Instagram messages, undercuts West's "consenting participant" framing.
