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The truth may be stranger than fiction. Join us as we count down the most shocking revelations from the Netflix documentary "Russell Brand: Open Secret." From allegations made by former girlfriends Jordan Martin and "Emily," to Brand's controversial pivot to right-wing media and his disputed Christian conversion, this documentary pulls back the curtain on one of entertainment's most controversial figures.
Transcript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 10 of the major revelations and allegations examined in the Netflix documentary
00:07Russell Brand Open Secret, all of which Brand has denied.
00:11And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question, is there another agenda
00:20at play?
00:21The Dilemma of the Journalists
00:23The documentary is not just an account of the allegations against Brand, but a glimpse into the investigative process and
00:30how those who worked behind the scenes helped break the story.
00:33Rosamund Irwin and Charlotte Weiss both appear in the documentary, and both detail how they used passages from Brand's book
00:39and communication with alleged victims to build their stories.
00:42I had some dark nights of the soul over this. Like many people who work on these stories, you know,
00:49it would invade my dreams.
00:50Weiss also shares an on-screen account of being scared for the women and how her reporting might put the
00:56women at risk of exposure or backlash.
00:58According to Weiss, she constantly thought of worst-case scenarios in the midst of writing.
01:03It was that that made me feel sick at times. What is going to happen when we publish? And I
01:08was always just thinking, you know, worst-case scenarios, what if their identity is compromised in any way?
01:14Including the possibility of a compromised identity, a decline in the subject's mental health, or even personal retribution from Brand
01:22himself.
01:23Irwin also recounts being affected, calling it, quote, a very nerve-wracking time in which she experienced nightmares and insomnia.
01:31My investigation was slowing down. Thank God I, thank God Charlotte came on board.
01:40His pivot to right-wing commentary.
01:42In recent years, critics have characterized Brand's output as a sharp pivot towards conspiratorial and right-wing commentary.
01:49The documentary features Laura Condor, a TV producer who worked as a researcher on Brand's show Stay Free.
01:56I was a researcher on Stay Free with Russell Brand.
02:00He's one of the first people that Rumble have ever given an exclusive contract to, and that contract was worth
02:05millions.
02:06She discusses what she describes as Brand's conspiratorial content, noting how Rumble suited that direction, before offering her own theory
02:14about why the shift occurred.
02:16She posits on camera that not only was it a way to keep himself relevant, it was also a way
02:21to shield himself from the allegations she believes he knew were coming.
02:25Rumble was the perfect thing for that time.
02:28It's a free speech version of YouTube where you can say whatever you like.
02:32There is a global conspiracy by opioid killers and healthcare giants to get you sick, keep you sick, and charge
02:38you money.
02:39It was the weirdest setup I've ever been involved in in my life.
02:43According to her, Brand could use his new platform to call the allegations against him, quote,
02:48A mainstream media plot to silence him because he's right.
02:52Brand's lawyers responded to the report in a similar manner, saying that there was a, quote,
02:56Concerning agenda to the allegations due to him being, quote, an alternative media broadcaster.
03:02The publication was a concerted campaign and that their client believes there is a deeply concerning agenda to all this,
03:08namely the fact that he is an alternative media broadcaster competing with mainstream media.
03:13The conversion to Christianity
03:15Laura Condor and other interviewees expressed doubts regarding the authenticity of Brand's recent conversion to Christianity.
03:22Brand publicly declared himself a born-again Christian after being baptized in the Thames in 2024,
03:28stating that he wished to shed his past life of, quote,
03:31selfishness, egotism, and self-centeredness.
03:34Thank you for the gifts that he is.
03:36Father, I pray that you would encamp your angels around him.
03:40I really don't buy that he is a genuine Christian that goes to church every Sunday.
03:46Condor alleges that the conversion was not genuine, but merely a ploy to align himself with a certain demographic of
03:53the American population.
03:54Comedian Nish Kumar agrees, arguing that Brand positioned himself with an audience that doesn't care about the allegations.
04:01I think he positioned himself towards an audience that maybe don't necessarily have a problem with allegations of assault hanging
04:12around a person.
04:13Journalist Rosamund Irwin argues that Brand isn't even conforming to Christianity's ideals,
04:18contending that he has failed to repent or listen to the allegations against him.
04:23You then became a Buddhist.
04:24No.
04:24No, you're a Christian.
04:25Good.
04:25What do you want to be next?
04:27You were a...
04:27Oh, yes.
04:28That's what some people...
04:29A Jew?
04:29A Scientologist?
04:30Want to learn even more about the Russell Brand story?
04:33We've got you covered.
04:34Just scan the QR code on screen and head over to our 24-7 live stream,
04:38where there are even more videos dedicated to Brand and other stories like his.
04:43Would you close in prayer?
04:44Oh, yeah, all right.
04:47Hiding in plain sight.
04:49Rosamund Irwin also shares her perspective on Brand's public persona and how he framed his behavior.
04:55Irwin argues that Brand was telling us who he was the entire time,
04:59mostly through offhanded jokes in his stand-up comedy and talk show appearances.
05:04Over and over again, he had told us exactly who he was.
05:07Oh, Jesus!
05:08He threw a bra.
05:09It was sort of a bit sexually exciting and a little bit frightening.
05:13In her opinion, Brand had, quote,
05:16a clever way of hiding by making explicit jokes about his behavior in his stand-up,
05:21thereby normalizing the stories in the eyes of the public.
05:24Irwin suggests that by openly confessing to a surprising amount of bad behavior in public,
05:29he created an illusion of transparency.
05:32She argues that because people assumed he had already laid everything on the table,
05:36other, potentially more serious actions could blend into the background and go unnoticed.
05:40So the rest of the stuff, maybe, gets lost because you've already admitted to so much.
05:45Oh my god, people are showing their views.
05:47Heaven's sake, you know about my reputation.
05:49Intercut with her arguments are scenes from his old stand-up,
05:52with Brand performing sexually explicit stand-up material.
05:56An Open Secret
05:57The documentary is titled Open Secret,
06:00reflecting how several interviewees describe Brand's reputation behind the scenes.
06:05Brand being the subject of jokes is nothing new,
06:08but the documentary puts on-camera voices to what several interviewees describe as an
06:12industry-open secret.
06:14People were threatened that if they spoke about it,
06:17there would be legal action brought against them.
06:19Nish Kumar is the one who opens the movie,
06:22recounting that the stories of Brand were, quote,
06:24circulating in the industry for a long time,
06:26but no one wanted to come forth out of fear of legal action.
06:30Another comedian, Harriet Kemsley,
06:32also states that people were, quote,
06:41People started to get really frustrated because you kept hearing that something was going to come
06:46out publicly, and it just never did.
06:49According to Kemsley, as a way to call attention to the behavior,
06:53comics began making jokes at Brand's expense.
06:56Kemsley even suggests that it was the comedian's jokes that caused the journalists to investigate
07:01in the first place.
07:02From what I've heard,
07:05journalists saw what comedians were talking about,
07:09and that's what led them to investigate.
07:11His girlfriend thought something dark was inside.
07:15One of the subjects of the documentary is Amanda Alguero Alejos,
07:19a former girlfriend of Brand's.
07:21Alejos met Brand while he was teaching at a foreign language school in London.
07:25The two hit it off and became a couple,
07:27with Alejos reporting that Brand was very affectionate and caring towards her.
07:30He was nice and sweet.
07:33I remember every Friday we used to go to a pub.
07:38He was different from other teachers.
07:41According to Alejos, that dynamic shifted when he got famous with Big Brother.
07:46In Alejos' own words, fame, quote,
07:49provided Russell with too many temptations,
07:51and she says that girls would constantly be surrounding him.
07:54The girls used to give him a phone number on his hand next to me,
08:00and I was shocked.
08:01I said, what happened here?
08:03I try myself so, so much,
08:06and I love him so much, so much.
08:09You cannot imagine.
08:10Women would reportedly write their phone numbers on his hand right next to her,
08:14and footage from the doc shows Brand calling women, quote,
08:16gorgeous and kissing them on the lips.
08:19According to Alejos, Brand was now a, quote,
08:22totally different person, with, quote,
08:24something dark inside.
08:26She says that shift ultimately led her to end the relationship.
08:29I felt something dark he had inside.
08:36Another subject is Mark Pinheiro, Brand's former roommate.
08:39The two met in school, and Pinheiro offered him a place in his house,
08:43finding him a bit, quote, down and out.
08:45Pinheiro recalls that one night after Brand rose to fame,
08:48he brought a woman back to the house and went into his bedroom.
08:51According to Pinheiro, shouting soon erupted from the room,
08:55escalating until he went into the room to investigate,
08:58where he says he found Brand holding onto her arm
09:00and pulling her, quote, like a tug of war.
09:03It was getting really calamitous in the room.
09:05You're hearing loads of noise, and, you know,
09:07you can hear the girl shouting, they let go of me.
09:10I'm thinking, this has gone on long enough.
09:13He then turned on the light,
09:15which he says forced Brand to let go of her.
09:17Pinheiro adds that he told the woman
09:19that if she wanted to report the encounter to the police,
09:22he would back her up, but it's unclear if she ever did so.
09:26And I said, well, if you want to report it,
09:29feel free, and I will support you.
09:32The Conveyor Belt of Women
09:34Former dancer Georgina Bailey,
09:36the granddaughter of Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs,
09:39was at the center of a major media scandal
09:41involving Russell Brand in 2008,
09:44the story of which is covered in the documentary.
09:46Russell left a voicemail on my mobile.
09:48He said, look, I've just done something really naughty,
09:50and my friend Jonathan's here.
09:52We think you should break into your grandparents' house
09:54and destroy their answering machine.
09:56And I'm like, what?
09:57In October of that year,
09:59Brand and Jonathan Ross left a number
10:01of lewd voicemails on Sachs' phone,
10:03with Brand telling him that he slept with his granddaughter.
10:06In the film, Bailey also shares her account
10:09of Brand's behavior with women.
10:10Despite wanting him to, quote,
10:12fall in love with her,
10:13Bailey says her experience was very different.
10:16According to her,
10:17the women around Brand were, quote,
10:19on a conveyor belt,
10:20with one woman being replaced by another within the hour.
10:24We were on a conveyor belt,
10:25being swiftly replaced with the next girl an hour later.
10:29Bailey also recounts encountering another woman
10:31walking up the driveway,
10:33alleging that Brand invited her to stay
10:35because, quote, she'll like her,
10:37an offer she says she declined.
10:39I think I'd better go.
10:41The story of Jordan Martin.
10:43Another one of Brand's ex-girlfriends,
10:45a woman named Jordan Martin,
10:46makes an appearance to discuss what she describes
10:49as Brand's controlling nature.
10:50She recounts that Brand took her to Hawaii
10:53while filming Forgetting Sarah Marshall,
10:55claiming that while there,
10:56he cheated on her with a yoga instructor,
10:59accused her of flirting with one of the crew members,
11:01quote, just to see how she would react,
11:03and prohibited her from sunbathing on the beach.
11:06I just felt like I was in a constant state of confusion.
11:09His energy was so big
11:11that it kind of just made you smaller every time.
11:15She also recalls that while back in the UK,
11:19the two were sharing a hotel room
11:20when Martin phoned someone who had her bag,
11:23hoping to arrange a pickup.
11:24Martin says that after asking who she had called,
11:27Brand snatched the phone out of her hand
11:29and broke it into pieces,
11:30and she alleges that he then sexually assaulted her.
11:33I didn't report it in any way.
11:36I didn't share it with anybody.
11:39I sat with it quietly.
11:46While Martin had written about these alleged incidents
11:49in her 2014 memoir,
11:51this was the first time she has told her story on camera.
11:54The testimony of Emily.
11:56The documentary also features a brand new allegation
12:00made by a woman known only as Emily.
12:02To protect her identity,
12:04Emily is portrayed by an actress
12:06reading her testimony verbatim.
12:08Emily dated Brand before he was famous,
12:10and reported feeling very close to him.
12:12He definitely had that magnetic personality
12:14to draw you in,
12:15and make you feel like
12:17you're the most special person in the world.
12:20However, according to her account,
12:22that all changed one morning
12:23when Brand wanted to have sex.
12:25She states that she insisted he wear a condom,
12:28and alleges that despite her repeated pleas,
12:31he refused and sexually assaulted her.
12:33Aside from feeling, quote,
12:35completely violated,
12:36Emily says she also feared getting a disease,
12:39citing Brand's past admissions
12:40of having slept with a number of sex workers.
12:43And all I could think of was,
12:45was, oh my God,
12:46this guy's going to infect me with something, you know?
12:49For his part,
12:50Brand has consistently denied all allegations
12:52of non-consensual sexual activity.
12:55Obviously, I've been through a lot of things personally.
12:57I know you've been through a lot of things personally, too.
12:59Did anything else from the documentary stand out to you?
13:02Let us know in the comments.