Asia Argento, the Italian actress and director who has positioned herself as a leading figure in the #MeToo movement, pushed back Tuesday against a New York Times report that she had arranged to pay the actor Jimmy Bennett after he accused her of sexually assaulting him when he was 17.

In a statement, Ms. Argento said that she had never had sex with Mr. Bennett. Hours later, Mr. Bennett’s lawyer, Gordon K. Sattro, said that her denial was false and that he was working with his client on a statement. By Wednesday morning, Mr. Bennett and his advisers had still not issued one.

The responses were the first public comment from either side since The Times approached the actors with questions about documents showing that Ms. Argento had arranged to pay $380,000 to Mr. Bennett, after he notified her last November that he would sue over their May 2013 encounter in a California hotel room. The age of consent in that state is 18.

Ms. Argento, who for five days has not responded to The Times’s requests for comment, forcefully denied Tuesday that she had assaulted Mr. Bennett.