Paul Schrader responds to sexual assault allegations with an open letter

Los Angeles, April 8 (IANS) Hollywood screenwriter Paul Schrader has addressed the allegations of sexual assault in a letter to his friends and associates.

The allegations were levelled by his 26-year-old former assistant, claiming her accusations couldn’t be “further from the truth”, reports ‘Variety’.

On April 3, Schrader’s former assistant, identified as Jane Doe, alleged in a legal filing that the “Taxi Driver” screenwriter had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions.

As per ‘Variety’, one alleged incident occurred shortly after last year’s ‘Oh, Canada’ premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where she claims Schrader exposed his penis to her in his hotel room.

She also claimed that Schrader’s lawyer agreed on a monetary settlement after the alleged abuse, but after some “soul searching,” he pulled out of the deal. The Jane Doe’s lawyers then filed a motion in New York state court to enforce the settlement and recoup litigation expenses.

Schrader has since responded to the claims in a letter sent Monday. In it, he writes that it’s “important” for the masses to “hear from me directly about the subject” to get his side of the accusations, which he claims to be “false and misleading”.

The letter reads, “Out of the blue, in the fall of last year, a lawyer I had never heard of, representing my former assistant, sent me a letter demanding that I pay my former assistant millions of dollars or she would go public with sensational, false and misleading accusations about our relationship and my conduct via a lawsuit”.

He explained that he felt “legally entitled” to back out of a settlement, which he claims “would not be effective unless both Plaintiff and I signed it”. Schrader then went on to detail the most “physically ‘intimate’ experiences” he shared with his former assistant, claiming they shared “two kisses on the lips”.

He stressed that they “never had sex in any form”. “The first kiss was in December 2023 in a New York bar after we had both been drinking. She continued working actively with me thereafter. She did not indicate to me that she had been troubled by the kiss, much less that she preferred to change or end our relationship”, Schrader wrote.

He further mentioned, “The second kiss took place in May 2024 at Cannes where she had accompanied me for the premiere of my most recent film. Once again, after we had been drinking together, I kissed her. This time she indicated displeasure. I never attempted to kiss her again and I also apologized. Even after Cannes, Plaintiff expressed emphatically her desire to continue to work, dine and travel with me”.

Schrader ended his letter by saying he understands he will be “presumed guilty” in the “current climate” surrounding sexual assault in Hollywood, but remains confident the court would “see the truth” if he goes to trial.

“I have nothing to hide about my conduct, and that includes my decision not to yield to the pressure of my former assistant’s threat to make her sensational allegations public”, he added.

--IANS

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