Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader accused of sexual harassment and assault
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The lawsuit says Paul Schrader initially agreed to an undisclosed financial settlement over the allegations, but later backed out.
PHOTO: AFP
LOS ANGELES - American screenwriter Paul Schrader, who is behind actor Robert De Niro’s classics Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), is being sued by his former assistant for sexual harassment and assault.
Schrader, 78, has been accused by the unnamed 26-year-old of grabbing and kissing her while they were at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024.
A lawsuit filed in New York last week says after she escaped his clutches, the woman – given the pseudonym Jane Doe in the suit – was summoned to his hotel room three days later where Schrader exposed himself.
“Since Defendant Schrader’s brutal attack on Ms Doe, exposure of his genitals to her, and his countless other acts of sexual harassment, she has suffered, inter alia, nightmares, extreme anxiety, and trauma, and has withdrawn almost completely from her former life,” the suit says.
The legal filing claims Schrader fired his assistant in September 2024.
“Two days later, in full acknowledgment of his unlawful and predatory behaviour, he wrote in an email to her...’If I have become a Harvey Weinstein in your mind, then of course you have no choice but to put me in the rear view mirror,’” the lawsuit says.
Weinstein, 73, was the Hollywood power player whose decades-long sexual predation sparked the #MeToo movement in 2017, leading to convictions that are under appeal.
The former Miramax co-founder is serving a 16-year prison sentence in California after rape convictions in New York were overturned in 2024.
Jane Doe’s suit says Schrader initially agreed to an undisclosed financial settlement over the allegations, but later backed out.
The motion seeks to enforce the terms of the agreement and demands reimbursement for legal fees and costs.
Schrader’s lawyer, Mr Philip Kessler, told AFP on April 7 that they would contest the lawsuit.
He said Schrader had not signed an agreement, which meant it was null and void.
“He reflected on paying as much money as the agreement required him to pay, had he signed it, and he reached the conclusion that it was not in his interest to do that,” Mr Kessler said.
The lawyer said the underlying harassment allegations “are seriously inaccurate, very misleading and fundamentally untrue”.
“He kissed her twice in almost three and a half years and... it was only at the time of the second kiss that she indicated displeasure, and he never attempted to kiss her again,” Mr Kessler added.
“He will also say that he never attempted to have sex with her, and he will also say that he never exposed himself to her.”
Schrader was at Cannes 2024 to promote his film Oh, Canada (2024), which starred American actor Richard Gere, American actress Uma Thurman and Australian actor Jacob Elordi.
AFP has reached out to Cannes organisers for comment. AFP
