Emile Hirsch Looks Back At His 2015 Drunken Assault Of Female Paramount Executive & Calls It “The Worst Moment Of My Whole Life By Far”

Armando Tinoco
·3 min read
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Emile Hirsch is looking back and reflecting on the 2015 assault of a Paramount executive during the Sundance Film Festival.

“It was scary because it was so wrapped up in binge drinking,” Hirsch told The Independent in a recent interview. “I had no memory of what happened. So I’m reading the stuff the next day, like, ‘What?’ I was dumbfounded. Horrified. It’s like if you drink too much and then you wake up and you’ve done this horrible thing.”

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Those who witnessed it at Sundance or heard about it, will recall it as an unbelievable act of violence by a man against a woman. Here is some of how Deadline covered it back in 2015:

The Paramount executive allegedly assaulted by Emile Hirsch this year at the Sundance Film Festival told police the actor “choked me up, threw me across the table, and I felt the front of my throat hit the back of my throat,” according to an interview recorded by a police officer’s body camera. The information was in investigative documents obtained by the Associated Press.

“It was insanely painful and absolutely terrifying,” the exec who was assaulted said the night of the incident at the Tao nightclub in Park City, Utah.

Hirsch acknowledged having three or four drinks that night but said he couldn’t remember exactly what happened. “She started kind of causing a ruckus and I sort of started getting intervening and this happened,” said Hirsch. “I don’t think it was much more than that to be honest…. I think she had a go at me and I probably defended myself.”

“I have seen quite a few fights in my life, but this was pretty violent,” a film director whose name is redacted in the documents told police.

Back to the present. Hirsch pleaded guilty to the incident and was sentenced to 15 days in jail, 90 days probation and 50 hours of community service. The actor was also required to participate in an aftercare treatment program as well as pay restitution to his victim.

“It was scary because it was so wrapped up in binge drinking,” he continued to reflect on the incident. “I had no memory of what happened. So I’m reading the stuff the next day, like, ‘What?’ I was dumbfounded. Horrified. It’s like if you drink too much and then you wake up and you’ve done this horrible thing.”

“It’s something that should have just never happened. Sometimes people – not everybody – have these moments where you let yourself down or you let other people down. And you can say you’re sorry and mean it and move forward, and try to be the best parent and make a living for yourself and still love your art and still love your family and your friends. And that’s sort of what I’ve chosen to do. I think… I hope that I can be a better person as well.”

Hirsch called the incident “the worst moment of my whole life by far” and says that “it certainly led me to do a lot of the emotional work and the therapy that I think I probably should have been getting when I was younger.”

His rendering falls short of regarding how that assault impacted the victim, whom Deadline will not name here.

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