Paul Schrader, the screenwriter behind Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, American Gigolo and Affliction, has been accused of sexually harassing his former assistant and backing out of making settlement payments.
In a lawsuit filed in New York on Thursday, the 26-year-old woman, identified as Jane Doe, claims Schrader sexually assaulted her during the Cannes Film Festival last year “by luring her into a hotel room and forcibly grabbing her and kissing her, despite her verbal protests.” Schrader was at Cannes for the premiere of his latest film, Oh, Canada.
The woman — who worked for Schrader from May 2021 to September 2024 — managed to free herself and flee the hotel room, the suit states.
Three days later, the woman went back to the screenwriter’s hotel room after “receiving numerous calls and angry text messages, in which Defendant Schrader claimed that he was ‘dying’ and could not pack his own bags,” according to the lawsuit. When he opened the door, Schrader allegedly was “wearing nothing but an open bathrobe, with his penis fully exposed.”
The woman states that she packed his bags “in terrified silence” as quickly as possible before leaving his hotel room.
The lawsuit claims Schrader “repeatedly demonstrated in writing that he understood his conduct was unwelcome and offensive” to his former assistant, “yet he knowingly proceeded to harass and forcibly touch her.” The complaint includes emails the screenwriter allegedly sent to Jane Doe, such as writing to her on May 22, 2023, “I sense you are uncomfortable with my affection for you.”
After allegedly refusing Schrader’s sexual advances, the woman claims he “retaliated against her and terminated her employment” in September 2024.
Two days later, the suit alleges Schrader sent his former assistant an email in “full acknowledgment of his unlawful and predatory behavior,” writing, “So I fucked up. Big time. … If I have become a Harvey Weinstein in your mind then of course you have no choice but to put me in the rearview mirror.”
After, the lawsuit states the woman retained legal counsel and that their attorneys agreed on a settlement for Schrader to pay a confidential amount to resolve her allegations. However, Schrader allegedly put off signing the agreement. After several weeks, the woman’s attorney claims Schrader decided that he “could not live with himself” if he accepted the settlement and repudiated the binding agreement.
Schrader’s attorney, Philip Kessler, told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday that the legal filing is a “desperate, opportunistic and frivolous lawsuit to enforce a settlement that was never signed by Schrader.”
Kessler said that the accusations mentioned in the suit are “in many respects inaccurate, in other respects materially misleading and exaggerated. Mr. Schrader never had sex with his former assistant. He never tried to have sex with his former assistant. The circumstances here will be shown to have been blown very wildly out of proportion to reality.” He added, “We intend to vigorously defend the case.”
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