Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winning director of “Crash,” declared himself to be “a broken person” in a New York civil court on Friday, while continuing to deny that he raped a film publicist at his Soho apartment in 2013.
“I’m a very flawed human being,” Haggis said, capping a three-day testimony in which he admitted to having between 20 to 25 extramarital affairs and struggling with a sense of self-worth, while also decrying efforts to paint him as a sexual predator.
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Haggis is in court to defend himself in a civil rape lawsuit brought against him by a former film publicist Haleigh Breest, who alleges the filmmaker forced her to perform oral sex on him and then raped her after they attended a movie premiere.
Haggis argued that he had channeled his faults into his art. “It’s one of the reasons I wrote ‘Crash’ — because I couldn’t figure out how to be good,” he said. When defense attorney Priya Chaudhry asked him if his statement about being a flawed human being referred to sexually assaulting anyone, the filmmaker responded, “Oh God, no.”
During cross-examination, plaintiff attorney Ilann Maazel played clips from Haggis’ video deposition where he explained his interpretation of when Breest said “no” to him taking off her tights. “She did not say ‘no’ in the way that one means ‘no,’” Haggis said. “You have to put the word in context…Women and men don’t make declarations like that. They have conversations. We don’t talk like attorneys.”
Haggis suggested that Breest did not try to stop him from engaging in sexual activity because she felt physically threatened. He said that Breest initially was hesitant about taking off her clothes because she was feeling insecure about her body and didn’t want him to see her naked. That’s what she was referring to when she said “no,” he argued.
“There was a conversation about whether she was fat or not,” Haggis recalled. “I did not think she was fat. I thought she was adorable… She clearly did not want me to see her naked.”
Haggis, who often rolled his head, puckered his lips, and closed his eyes as though deep in thought when answering penetrating questions, alleged that he gave Breest a number of opportunities to leave his apartment before they stepped into the bedroom.
“I couldn’t figure out what the heck is going on besides that she’s really into me,” Haggis recalled. “I told her that I’d bring her downstairs. I’d buy her a cab. I gave her a lot of opportunities to explain what was going on with her… She’s stepping away, getting a glass of wine and then coming back to kiss me.”
Despite this, Haggis said there were “very clear” signals that indicated Breest was interested in engaging in sexual behavior with him. “She was involved, she was passionate,” he said. Haggis recalled Breest acting “coy,” which he described as “the pretense of shyness or modesty used in a way to appear or to be alluring to someone.
“I couldn’t tell if she was actually shy or was pretending to be so because she thought that I was alluring,” Haggis said.
Haggis argued that he could not have forced himself on Breest because of the way that the two had engaged in oral sex. He said that he had been lying back on a bed, not standing up when the act occurred. “You can’t thrust into someone’s mouth in a lying position,” Haggis said.
He later acknowledged that there had been a “small gag” on Breest’s part, which her attorneys seemed to imply was evidence that the oral sex was not consensual.
The filmmaker said he hadn’t thought much about his 2013 sexual encounter with Breest until she filed her lawsuit in 2017. When asked what stood out to him from his night with Breest, Haggis listed two things: “The unusual moments, which seemed odd, and then the oral sex, which was very pleasurable.”
While both sides expected evidence to wrap up the trial by Monday, Judge Sabrina Kraus told the jury to expect closing statements to be delivered on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think that we made the progress that I hoped that we’d make, so I don’t think that we’re going to be done on Monday,” Kraus said at the end of the day.
Leah Remini, a sitcom star and former Scientologist, could be one of the witnesses to testify virtually on Monday, but Chaudhry noted that the actor had the flu and “could barely speak” when they spoke on the phone. Since leaving the church in 2013, Remini has been one of its most vocal critics, producing a documentary series about her experiences and writing a memoir. Zoe Salzman, an attorney for Breest, pushed back against the defense having additional ex-Scientologists testify, emphasizing that the church has “no connection” to any aspects of this case.
Haggis’s legal team has tried to make a connection between the allegations against their client and his own criticism of the religion even as it has also acknowledged that Breest has no ties to Scientology. Like Remini, Haggis was a long-time Scientologist turned outspoken critic.
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