Sarah Polley breaks silence about traumatic encounter with Jian Ghomeshi

On screen, actor Sarah Polley was often cast as the fierce protagonist veering straight into peril, whether it was an oncoming bus or some sort of explosion.

Off screen, however, she says she feared confronting certain things, including a traumatic experience with former CBC radio personality Jian Ghomeshi.

The 43-year-old filmmaker and Oscar-nominated screenwriter says a brain injury in 2015 became a catalyst for her to address some past trauma. The result is a new collection of essays, Run Towards the Danger (out March 1), which Polley says took years to write.

"These are the stories that haunted me," said Polley in an interview with Matt Galloway, host of CBC Radio's The Current.

She is sharing them because "I think I'm strong enough to handle this now."

Polley had her first film role at age four and was a Canadian television staple by the 1990s. Her roles ranged from the strong-willed Sara Stanley in Road to Avonlea to a teen paralyzed by a bus accident and sexually abused in The Sweet Hereafter. Polley eventually moved on to direct films, including the Oscar-nominated Away From Her (2006) and Stories We Tell (2012).

While Polley's book is frank about her career in film and television, the most shocking essay involves an incident of alleged sexual violence with Ghomeshi, which Polley says she has carried since she was 16. In the essay, entitled "The Woman Who Stayed Silent," Polley relates how Ghomeshi, who was 28 at the time, hurt her during a sexual encounter at his apartment, and ignored her pleas to stop.

Ghomeshi is a former member of the folk-pop band Moxy Früvous and hosted the CBC Radio show Q.

In 2014, he was accused of sexual assault and harassment by several women and charged. Ghomeshi argued that the incidents were consensual. He was acquitted on four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking involving three complainants in 2016.

CBC reached out to Ghomeshi multiple times through Roqe Media, as well as his former lawyer Marie Heinen, for a response to Polley's allegations.

At the time of Ghomeshi's trial, Polley considered coming forward to tell her story.

"I did struggle with this a lot," she said.

WATCH | Polley on why she's speaking out now:

But she said lawyers she spoke with told her she'd make a "terrible" witness because of inconsistencies in her story and how she interacted with Ghomeshi as a guest on his radio show in the years after the alleged incident.