Paz De La Huerta wears Alexandra Rich earrings available at Paume Los Angeles.
Paz flickers inside her computer as we begin the interview, almost like she’s coming in and out of existence. Her reception is a little shaky. She’s hiding in a far-away land, which sounds romantic if we didn’t know anything about the circumstances. She is raising money for a film to tell the gruesome story of the dynamics within her family, which have come to a head in recent years. We sat down, two souls on opposite sides of the world, to discuss her film, following one’s inner truth, and her own personal journey through a Valley of Tears.
I know you’re in a sensitive situation right now. Do you want to start with where you are and why?
Well, I can’t say where I am exactly. Let’s just say I’m in an undisclosed location between the desert and the ocean. I had to leave my apartment in Spain because my family was hiring people to find me and hurt me. We actually have an affidavit that they put a hit on my life.
Frightening
I survived multiple attempts on my life already, including by Harvey Weinstein.
You mean, you suspect Harvey Weinstein went further with you than just sexual abuse?
After Weinstein raped me for the second time I went to a journalist. Shortly after that I got fired from Boardwalk Empire and was blackmailed into making this B movie called Nurse 3D. During the filming I was hit by a truck; an ambulance in one of the scenes piloted by a “stunt driver” drove right into me. I spent 2 1/2 years in the hospital, and then I almost got Justice but the night before the third hearing, I was given a brain injury and couldn’t go to court
Paz De La Huerta wears N.I.X.M. dress and Alexandra Rich earrings available at Paume Los Angeles.
Paz De La Huerta wears N.I.X.M. dress and Alexandra Rich earrings available at Paume Los Angeles.
Paz De La Huerta wears N.I.X.M. dress and Alexandra Rich earrings available at Paume Los Angeles.
How did they give you a brain injury?
I was blackmailed into taking 300 milligrams of Seroquel. Do you know what that is?
Reserved: Never heard of it.
Paz: It’s an antipsychotic. But I’m not psychotic, and I was allergic to it. It took me 5 years to recover from that.
Reserved: That’s crazy.
Paz: I have nearly died many times. And guess what, now I want to expose it and all the abuse I have suffered at the hands of my family, which was basically satanic ritual abuse. Satanic abuse is real, and I was a victim of it.
I come from Spanish royalty, this is the thing. And they think they can get away with murder. Spain is kind of corrupt. I have evidence, and when I show people the things I’ve survived, they’re like, “How are you alive?”
Reserved: What kind of evidence do you have?
Paz: I have pictures of myself. After I told my father’s financial managers that he was raping me, my father came and beat me nearly to death. I have pictures of the bruises. Everything. But I couldn’t go to the police because in Spain he’s a Duke; my family holds a lot of power in that country. My godmother invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the media to fund a smear campaign of me, having unrecognizable photos of me printed to make me look ugly and crazy. So, I ran away to Los Angeles.
Paz De La Huerta wears Forte Forte dress and necklace available at Paume Los Angeles.
Paz De La Huerta wears Forte Forte dress and necklace available at Paume Los Angeles.
Reserved: What is their motivation do you think?
Paz: They don’t want to be exposed. I didn’t have a real mother; I had an evil mother. They would pay these total thugs – like henchmen – to traffic me. They sex trafficked me and abused me horrifically. My mother should be in jail along with Weinstein because my mother rented my 13-year-old bedroom to Miramax.
Her whole cover-up job with the UN… I think she trafficks women in third world countries. She’s like Ghislaine Maxwell.
These people are real satanists. My father’s best friend is a Russian aristocrat, and he owns the Statue of Satan by Jean Jacques. It’s in Paris, and it’s worth a lot of money. This is the kind of thing I grew up with. If my father wasn’t nobility, he would have been in jail a long time ago.
Reserved: So, where are you in the trial against them? What is the progress so far?
Paz: Well Spain is really…it is such a joke. I did lie detector tests, I showed photos of my body totally black and blue from my father, presented affidavits that people want to kill me and this old judge didn’t even look at the case. So, my Spanish lawyer denounced the judge and now we’re refiling in Toledo. But I have faith, ultimately, that I will find justice in America.
Reserved: Can you tell us about the documentary you are working on about all of this?
Paz: I’ve been making this film for over 13 years. It’s called Valley of Tears and it’s going to tell my story. It’s based on a prayer in the bible called Nossa Senhora das Lágrimas, which is about the end of suffering. Now that I’m safe, I’m raising the money to shoot the last scene which is going to be in Sintra, Portugal.
The film is going to tell my story.
Paz De La Huerta wears Rudi Gernreich swimsuit, Paume Atelier headband and vintage Courrèges necklace available at Paume Los Angeles.
Paz De La Huerta wears Rudi Gernreich swimsuit, Paume Atelier headband and vintage Courrèges necklace available at Paume Los Angeles.
Paz De La Huerta wears Rudi Gernreich swimsuit, Paume Atelier headband and vintage Courrèges necklace available at Paume Los Angeles.
Reserved: I loved the teaser for the film. The style feels like mix of narrative and documentary, with your voice narrating over these beautifully staged scenes that come across as very metaphorical. Knowing the serious nature of what you intend to reveal with this film, I wonder how you arrived at this dreamlike visual and narrative approach?
Paz: I think that art reveals itself. It’s crazy, but I started filming Valley of Tears as The Red Shoes when I was like 24. “The Red Shoes” is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson. Do you know it?
Reserved: I love “The Red Shoes”.
Paz: It’s always been one of my favorites. And that’s how Valley of Tears started. And then my life just took this insane turn of events, and I found my cinematographer Frederic Fesano. He’s still my cinematographer, and in Sintra we’ll finish the last 8 minutes of Valley of Tears in this incredible palace in Portugal at a location literally called “The Steps of Initiation”. So, it’s like the hell she has to go through until she reaches heaven. I recorded the narration for the final 8 minutes of the film after I ran away after my dad’s last assault, and I was determined to become whole again. So it’s very real.
Reserved: In the voiceover of the teaser, you describe the journey of sin and deceit on a path to rebirth. Do you feel that making this film is part of your rebirth, or that you are reinventing yourself somehow with this work?
Paz: The film is very important because it tells my story, and I think it tells my story in a very coherent way, in a way people understand. And working with Frederic Fesano naturally makes it something that is visually very beautiful.
I love the movies of Alejandro Jodorowsky. I feel like they are in the vein of “Anything”. I’m very spiritual and I feel like life is a spiritual vocation and my spirituality is what has kept me alive through all of this insanity. I mean literally the next shot in the film is one shot of me in a green dress going up these steps of initiation in Sintra with my voiceover revealing the truth.
I pray to finish it soon.
Up next Paz De La Huerta debuts new art works at Ruttkowski;68 group show. 8 Rue Charlot. January 27 2024- February 25, 2024
Reserved: How long is the film going to be when you’re finished? Or do you know?
Paz: 13 minutes. The whole thing. And it’s taken over 13 years.
Reserved: Do you plan to turn it into a feature?
Paz: We have so much footage, but I think it’s actually more powerful being shorter. I think it will be more impactful.
Reserved: Do you think the film will have an impact on the trial with your family, or do you see it as a totally separate thing, more of an artistic expression?
Paz: I’m not doing it with the intention of having an effect on putting my family in jail. Who knows, maybe by the time it comes out they’ll already be in jail. I don’t know. But it’s a way of releasing the truth to the world in a beautiful way. For me, justice is such a crazy thing. Who knows, especially in Spain given the power my family holds there. I pray justice will happen all over the world, but there’s also spiritual justice.
Reserved: You talk about karma, spirituality, and inner peace in the film. It’s difficult to accept the idea that suffering must be endured in order for spiritual rebirth or enlightenment, but do you feel that your suffering was somehow integral to becoming who you are? Or essential for your spiritual growth?
Paz: Yes. Bukowski has a great phrase. He says, “Isolation is the gift.” My family intentionally isolated me from so many people that love me. But within that isolation I put all my energy into my spirituality. I’ve read the Bible. I’ve read the Kabbalah. I’m Catholic personally, and when I did the Iboga medicine of South America I delved even deeper into my spirituality.
When you’re used to being abused, you don’t really know anything else. You have to learn to heal. But my therapist once said something really beautiful. He said, “It’s a universal law that the truth prevails.”
***
Paz remains in hiding as she raises funds for her film while modeling and working on her memoire. At the time of this interview, she is slated to shoot a Tony Kaye movie in the fall of 2023 playing the role of a blind beauty pageant queen. She will also appear in an undisclosed Spanish film shot this summer. Also a painter, she plans to exhibit her original work in Paris; a collection of over 100 paintings spanning the history of her life, some of which Paz says have been recently recovered.
Paz De La Huerta | @thefugitive1984
Written by Bonnie Foster | @bonnievaughanfoster
Photographed by Dana Boulos | @danaboulos
Styled and Produced by BJ Panda Bear | @bjpandabear
Hair: Paige Wishart | @paigewishart_glam using Oribe, Leonor Greyl, L’Oréal, and Christophe Robin.
Makeup: Bridget O’Donnell | @bridgetodonnellmakeup using Saie Beauty.
Production Assistant: Los Angela | @thecityoflosangela
Location: The.SITE | @shopthesite
