NEW YORK — Paul Schrader, the author of “Taxi Driver” and director of “American Gigolo,” has been accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting his former private assistant, firing her when she wouldn’t acquiesce to advances and reneging on a settlement that was meant to maintain the allegations confidential.
The previous assistant, recognized in court docket paperwork as Jane Doe, sued the filmmaker and his manufacturing firm on Thursday. She is searching for a decide’s order to implement the settlement after Schrader stated he couldn’t undergo with it. The phrases, together with a financial fee, weren’t disclosed.
“This is an open-and-shut settlement enforcement matter,” Doe’s lawyer, Gregory Chiarello, wrote in court docket papers accompanying the breach of contract declare.
Schrader’s lawyer, Philip J. Kessler, deemed the lawsuit “desperate, opportunistic and frivolous” and stated most of the allegations in it are false or materially deceptive.
“We absolutely deny that there was ever a sexual relationship of any kind between Mr. Schrader and his former assistant, and we deny that Mr. Schrader ever made an attempt to have a sexual relationship of any kind with his former assistant,” Kessler stated.
The lawsuit, filed in a New York court docket, laid naked allegations that the confidential settlement between Doe, 26, and Schrader, 78, had been meant to maintain underneath wraps.
They embrace her declare that the filmmaker trapped her in his lodge room, grabbed her arms and kissed her towards her will final yr whereas they had been selling his newest movie, “Oh, Canada,” on the Cannes Movie Competition in France.
Two days later, the lawsuit stated, Schrader referred to as Doe repeatedly and despatched her indignant textual content messages claiming he was “dying” and couldn’t pack his luggage. When Doe arrived to assist, the lawsuit stated, Schrader uncovered his genitals to her as he opened his lodge room door sporting nothing however an open bathrobe.
Doe alleges Schrader fired her final September after she once more rejected his advances. Quickly after, the lawsuit stated, he despatched her an e mail expressing concern that he’d develop into “a Harvey Weinstein” in her thoughts. Weinstein, the film mogul turned #MeToo villain, was convicted of rape in Los Angeles in 2022 and is awaiting an April 15 retrial in his New York rape case.
In keeping with the lawsuit, Schrader agreed to the settlement on Feb. 5 however modified his thoughts after an sickness and “soul searching.” Schrader conveyed by way of his legal professionals final month that he “could not live with the settlement,” the lawsuit stated. Kessler disputed that.
“The agreement that they’re trying to enforce against Mr. Schrader, in plain English, required both parties to sign it before it became legally effective,” Kessler stated. “Mr. Schrader declined to sign it. It’s frankly as simple as that.”
Doe labored for Schrader from 2021 till 2024, in keeping with the lawsuit. Throughout that point, Kessler stated, she posted on social media about how a lot she liked her job and referred to Schrader as a rare mentor and “my man.”
Schrader rose to fame by way of his collaborations with director Martin Scorsese, starting with “Taxi Driver” in 1976. Robert De Niro’s iconic line, “You talkin’ to me,” is seared into the lexicon and ranked among the many American Movie Institute’s all-time biggest film quotes.
Schrader co-wrote Scorsese’s 1980 boxing drama “Raging Bull,” additionally starring De Niro, and authored his 1988 non secular epic “The Last Temptation of Christ” and his 1999 paramedic drama “Bringing Out the Dead.”
He’s additionally directed 23 of his personal movies, highlighted by 1980’s “American Gigolo,” which he additionally wrote. He acquired his solely Academy Award nomination for writing “First Reformed,” a 2017 thriller a few small-town minister that he additionally directed.
Schrader instructed The Related Press final yr that he made “Oh, Canada” — the movie that Doe stated introduced them to Cannes — as he reconciled his personal mortality after a string of hospitalizations for lengthy COVID.
In 2016, Schrader instructed The Hollywood Reporter police visited him after he ranted on Fb about Donald Trump’s then-looming presidency. Schrader wrote Trump’s election was “a call to violence” and stated individuals ought to be “willing to take arms.”
In 2023, he trashed the Oscars as scrambling “to be woke” with range efforts and extra worldwide voters. And in 2021, within the wake of #MeToo, he decried so-called “cancel culture,” telling Deadline it was “so infectious, it’s like the Delta virus.”
“If your friend says, ‘They’re saying these terrible things about me that aren’t true’, you’re afraid to come to their defense, because you might catch that virus too,” Schrader instructed the leisure information outlet.
