All things considered, 2019 has been a rocky year for filmmaker Roman Polanski. The lingering effects of his decades-old sexual assault conviction have been felt thanks to the emergence of the #MeToo movement, but Polanski also released a new film that received some strong acclaim. And in a new interview with Paris Match (via Deadline), the filmmaker talked about his year, as well as commenting, once again, on his past and what he thinks about Harvey Weinstein, another Hollywood figure that has been linked to sexual assault allegations.
While he has never formally worked with Weinstein on a project, Polanski said that he was “very surprised by the avalanche of accusations” that were lobbed at the infamous producer.
However, Polanski said that he did have one issue with Weinstein that dates back to the awards season when “The Pianist” was deemed a favorite. He told a story about how the controversial producer decided to run a campaign against “The Pianist” so that the films Weinstein was campaigning for would have a better shot.
“I know that in 2003, Weinstein panicked when ‘The Pianist’ won two BAFTAs, including Best Film,” said the filmmaker. “Weinstein, who had two films nominated at the Oscars, launched a campaign to stop the same thing happening in Hollywood. It was he who dug up the [then] 26-year-old story with Samantha and which was no longer of interest to anyone. His press attaché was the first person to call me a ‘child rapist.’ The paradox is that ‘The Pianist’ didn’t win the Best Picture Oscar, a prize that goes to the producer, but I won Best Director.”
As for the accusations that have followed him now since the late-‘70s, which included a conviction of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He said his skin has “thickened and hardened like a shell.” However, the same can’t be said about his family, who he feels gets hurt the most by the headlines.
“But for my children, for Emmanuelle [Seigner, Polanski’s wife], it is appalling,” he explained. “It’s for them that I express myself. For me, I don’t even hope any longer to change the course of things. They suffer enormously; they receive insults and threats on social media. … Of course, I am responsible. In 1977, I made a mistake, and it is my family that pays the price almost a half a century later. The media has thrown itself on me with unheard violence. They seize on each new false accusation, even the absurd and unsubstantiated because it allows them to revive this subject. It’s like a curse, and I can’t do anything about it.”
Of course, Polanski is in the discourse in 2019 due to his comments about being expelled from the Academy, due to the past “mistake.” He also had a new film premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival, “An Officer and a Spy,” for which he is also getting awards recognition.
