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Mario Rodriguez is one of the men suing Tyler Perry, accusing the entertainment mogul of sexual assault.

Perry is a complex, even polarizing figure — for the messaging in his shows and films, and for his personal life.

Now, he alleges that Rodriguez’s legal team is attempting to blackmail him into settling through the deposition process.

Perry says that he’s not afraid to answer questions about his sexual orientation — but that it’s not a relevant topic to the lawsuit.

Did he refuse to sit for a deposition?

TMZ reports that a legal filing from Perry’s legal team is calling Rodriguez’s attorney dishonest.

According to the documents, Rodriguez’s team asked the court to sanction Perry for alleging to refuse to appear at a deposition.

The implication seems to be that Perry is avoiding a deposition where Rodriguez’s team plans to ask him if he is attracted to men.

(Physical attraction is not the primary factor in sexual assault and is sometimes not a factor at all, but it is arguably a pertinent question.)

Team Rodriguez alleges that Perry refused to sit for the deposition. Team Perry says that this isn’t true.

Perry’s attorney’s filing claims that the media mogul already agreed to sit for a deposition.

According to the documents, his team accuses Rodriguez of holding the “backwards belief” that Perry would “be embarrassed to answer questions about his sexual orientation.”

Perry says that he’s not embarrassed to answer questions.

According to his filing, Rodriguez’s planned questions are pressure to attempt to get him to settle the case rather than be deposed.

If that was the intention, it does not appear to be working.

If he’d settled, he could have avoided further depositions

According to Team Perry, the motion to depose him was a direct response to him turning down a multi-million dollar settlement proposal.

Allegedly, Rodriguez’s attorneys are attempting to pressure Perry into a settlement.

(To be fair, that is literally their job as attorneys. This is a lawsuit. The legal system doesn’t function properly without lawyers doing their jobs.)

Perry’s team also argues that questions about his sexual orientation aren’t relevant to the case.

They argue, and not incorrectly, that it is a “bigoted stereotype” that a man attracted to men would be more likely to commit assault. (Human sexuality is complex, and a substantial number of sexual assaults on men are committed by straight men.)

Perry is asking the court to sanction Rodriguez $7,300, accusing him of abusing the discovery process.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez is suing Perry for $77 million in damages.

He accuses the mega-producer of befriending him at a gym, casting him in a film, and eventually inviting him to his home to touch his genitals without consent.

We noted that he is not the first man to sue Perry.

With this in mind, Perry likely cannot avoid certain questions in any depositions — making them a poor tool for blackmail, if that were the alleged intent.