It appears that even if Roman Polanski wouldn’t have been kicked out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last week, he would have still been making headlines. And probably not for the reasons he wanted.
Recently, the Polish edition of Newsweek (via AP) published an interview with the filmmaker that was conducted BEFORE the May 3 decision to expel him from the Academy. And in that interview, Polanski didn’t hold back when asked about the #MeToo movement.
READ MORE: Roman Polanski Threatens To Sue The Academy Over “Illegal Expulsion”
Polanksi said that #MeToo is “collective hysteria of the kind that sometimes happens in the society.”
“Everyone is trying to sign up, chiefly out of fear,” he continued, comparing the movement to North Korea’s public mourning for its leaders when everyone cries so much that “you can’t help laughing.”
“To me this is total hypocrisy,” he said
Roman Polanski was recently in Poland to promote his recent film “Based on a True Story,” when he made those comments to the press. The AP reached out to Polanski’s lawyer in Poland, Jan Olszewski, for a comment about the recent news that he was kicked out of the Academy.
The AP reports that Olszewski said that the ruling to expel Polanski resembled “psychological abuse of an elderly person” for “populist goals.”
Of course, all this drama goes back to a decades-old court case, where the filmmaker pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, and eventually, fled the US for refuge in Europe. Since then, Polanski has been exiled from his home country, but still produces films with big-name stars, including Kate Winslet, Ewan McGregor, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz, and Eva Green.
Even after his charges and plea, he was awarded a Best Director Oscar for his film “The Pianist,” in 2002. Of course, the director wasn’t at the event to accept the award.
It’ll be interesting to see how the industry reacts to his recent comments and the expulsion from the Academy. If it’s anything like the recent reaction to Woody Allen, it means that the actors listed above should be prepared for questions about working with Polanski.