Rapist movie director Roman Polanski dismisses the #MeToo movement as ‘mass hysteria’ and ‘hypocrisy’
The disgraced Oscar winner likened the movement to terrified North Koreans being forced to cry for their dead leaders
CHILD rapist Roman Polanski has slammed the #MeToo movement as "collective hysteria" and "total hypocrisy."
The film director made the comment to the Polish edition of Newsweek just days before he was expelled by the Oscars Academy after nearly 50 years of membership.
Polanski, who directed movies such as Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown, pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in 1977.
He is alleged to have drugged Samantha Geimer, who was aged just 13, before raping her in a Jacuzzi at actor Jack Nicholson's Los Angeles home.
The Oscar winner subsequently fled the US and has been living in exile in France ever since.
In his interview Polanski said that to him, #MeToo is a "collective hysteria of the kind that sometimes happens in the society."
He added: "Everyone is trying to sign up, chiefly out of fear.”
Polanski compared the reactions to the movement, which has exposed the sexual misconduct of powerful men in Hollywood, to North Korea's public mourning for its leaders.
"To me this is total hypocrisy," he said, but did not elaborate.
He was in Poland last week promoting his latest movie, Based on a True Story, at a film festival in Krakow, where he grew up.
Polanski's lawyer, Jan Olszewski, said the director responded to the Academy decision with "indignation" and believes it was taken in violation of the organisation’s regulations.
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He said there was no explanation of the reasons and no right of defence.
Olszewski said that stripping Polanski of his Academy membership bore signs of "psychological abuse of an elderly person" for "populist goals."
A Paris-born Holocaust survivor, Polanski won an Academy Award in 2003 for directing The Pianist.
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