Brigitte Bardot slams ‘ridiculous’ #MeToo movement and says she found it ‘charming’ when men said she had a ‘nice little backside’
Bardot, 84, said many actresses complaining of harassment are "hypocritical and ridiculous"
FILM legend Brigitte Bardot has attacked the #MeToo movement claiming actresses who complain of sexual harassment are just looking for publicity.
The former starlet, 83, said: "The vast majority are being hypocritical and ridiculous. Lots of actresses try to play the tease with producers to get a role."
Speaking to French magazine Paris Match, she added: "And then, so we will talk about them, they say they were harassed.
"I was never the victim of sexual harassment. And I found it charming when men told me that I was beautiful or I had a nice little backside."
Her controversial remarks come amid a roaring debate over "affirmative consent" after comedian Aziz Ansari was accused of trying to pressure a former date into sex.
The woman, who met Ansari at an Emmys after-party, said she used "verbal and non-verbal cues" to convey her "distress" after he undressed her, then himself, before performing oral sex.
Writing on Babe.net under the pseudonym "Grace", she said she later texted Ansari saying: "You ignored clear non-verbal cues. You kept going with advances. You had to have noticed I was uncomfortable."
Ansari released a statement confirming parts of her statement but added: "It was true that everything did seem okay to me... I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said."
While many slammed the actor, just as many took to social media to urge more conversation on the issue of "affirmative consent".
Bardot's comments also come a week after fellow French star Catherine Deneuve sparked a worldwide feminist backlash by defending men's right to "hit on" women.
She signed an open letter by 100 prominent women that claimed that #MeToo had become a puritanical "witch-hunt" which threatened sexual freedom.
It also inferred that women fondled on public transport should just get over it.
But Deneuve later distanced herself from some of the other signatories after one claimed that women can orgasm during rape.
The 74-year-old went on to apologise to victims of sexual assault, saying there was "nothing good" about harassment.
Bardot, who ended her film career in 1973 so she could dedicate herself to her animal rights charity, has a long history of provoking feminists.
Yet she admitted to the magazine that she has not digested what happened to her when she was at the height of her fame in the 1960s, and her love life made international headlines.
"I still find it difficult to understand what happened to me," she said.
"That uncontrollable time made me very distrustful of the human race."
Bardot said she "has almost no contact these days with the entertainment industry" other than phone calls from her old friends like veteran actor Alain Delon.
Instead she looks after her six cats, nine dogs and some 50 other animals at her farm and animal sanctuary near the French Riviera resort of Saint Tropez.