Director and screenwriter Paul Schrader, best known for films like “Taxi Driver,” “American Gigolo” and “Raging Bull,” has been accused of reneging on a settlement with his former assistant over claims he sexually assaulting and harassed her for years, according to civil court documents.
Schrader allegedly broke a confidential settlement he agreed to in February with “Jane Doe,” his 26-year-old former assistant, in a motion filed Thursday night in New York State Supreme Court. The civil suit accuses Schrader of breach of contract for violating the settlement over the alleged sexual assault and harassment, which Doe said happened from 2021 to 2024.
NBC News obtained a statement on Friday morning from Doe’s attorney, Menaka Fernando, saying, “As stated in our motion, Ms. Doe is simply seeking to enforce the settlement agreement between the parties resolving her sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. We have no further comment at this time and ask that the media respect Ms. Doe’s privacy.”
In a phone call Friday morning, NBC News also spoke with Schrader’s attorney, Phillip Kessler, who called the claims “desperate and opportunistic,” and labeled some of the allegations as “legally frivolous.”
“I can tell you that Mr. Schrader never had sex with the plaintiff, nor did he attempt to have sex with the plaintiff,” Kessler told NBC News. “Much of what has been alleged has been taken very substantially out of context.”
Kessler also affirmed the intent “to defend this vigorously.” He did not address the specific allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault or breach of contract.
The motion states that throughout Doe’s tenure as Schrader’s assistant from May 2021 through her termination in September 2024, the now 78-year-old Schrader “used his position of power over Ms. Doe (who is 52 years younger than him) to force her to work in a sexually hostile, intimidating, and humiliating environment on a daily, if not hourly, basis.”
Schrader also “used his position of power over Ms. Doe to sexually assault her, by luring her into a hotel room and forcibly grabbing her and kissing her, despite her verbal protests,” according to the motion.
He “forced Ms. Doe into his hotel room, under the guise of packing his bags for him, and he exposed his penis to her,” the motion said.
The motion says that Schrader sexually assaulted Doe at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, when he “demanded Ms. Doe go to his hotel room, trapped her inside, grabbed her arms, and thrust his face into hers to kiss her against her will, and then further restrained her in an effort to keep her in the room before she managed to free herself and flee the hotel room.”
“Three days later, Ms. Doe returned to Defendant Schrader’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,” Doe’s motion continues. “Afraid, Ms. Doe reluctantly acquiesced,” the motion said.
“Upon arriving, however, Defendant Schrader opened the door to his hotel room wearing nothing but an open bathrobe with his penis fully exposed,” it continued. “As Ms. Doe attempted to pack Mr. Schrader’s bags in terrified silence, he repeatedly commented, ‘I am so sweaty. I sweated through the bedsheets. Feel how wet they are.’ Ms. Doe packed his bags as quickly as she could, and left.”
In multiple emails from Schrader to Doe, the filmmaker demonstrated his understanding that his conduct was “unwelcome and offensive” to his assistant, the motion states. For example, in one email he allegedly wrote to her last year, he said, “I sense you recoil every time I have the impulse to touch you.” In another sent in May 2023, Schrader wrote, “I cringe at the thought you fear I might touch you,” according to the motion.
After Doe refused Schrader’s sexual advances, she was fired, the motion says.
“Two days later, in full acknowledgment of his unlawful and predatory behavior, he wrote in an email to her, ‘So I f**ked 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 rear view mirror.’”
The motion also states that since Schrader’s “brutal attack on Ms. Doe, exposure of his genitals to her, and his countless other acts of sexual harassment, she has suffered ... nightmares, extreme anxiety, and trauma, and has withdrawn almost completely from her former life.”
Doe retained legal counsel and, after months of negotiations, eventually reached a settlement with Schrader’s lawyers in February of this year, the motion states. The settlement was agreed to in writing and the payment was to be made over the course of seven months.
Last month, Schrader’s attorney spoke to Doe’s legal team over the phone, saying that his client had been ill, had done some “soul searching” during that time, and had decided he didn’t want to pay Doe the full settlement payment to which he had previously agreed under the settlement agreement, according to the motion.
In response, Doe filed the motion in an attempt to propel Schrader to comply with his obligations. The settlement amount is currently confidential, and details have been redacted in court filings.
