Roman Polanski is charged with defaming 56-year-old Charlotte Lewis after she accused him of sexually assaulting her. in the worst possible manifestation» way' Photo: ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images
British actress Charlotte Lewis told a French court she was raped as a teenager by director Roman Polanski before he launched a smear campaign against her, denying the accusations.
«It almost ruined my life,» the 56-year-old told a criminal court in the French capital that is hearing a libel case against Polanski.
Polanski, who was not present at Tuesday's hearing, faces accusations against him that he slandered Lewis after she accused him of sexually assaulting her in the «worst possible way» when she was 16 in 1983. She went to Paris for a casting and appeared in Polanski's 1986 film Pirates.
Roman Polanski with Charlotte Lewis in May 1986, before the premiere of the film «Pirates». Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Polanski, 90, is wanted in the United States for raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977 and faces several other decades-old sexual assault charges, all of which he has denied. He fled to Europe in 1978.
Polanski's films include the Oscar-winning Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist.
The French director called the allegations of abuse against Lewis «disgusting.» lies» in a conversation with Paris Match in 2019.
According to the magazine, he pulled a copy of a 1999 article from the now-defunct News of the World and quoted Lewis as saying: «I wanted to be his lover.»
Lewis did it. stated that the quotes attributed to her in this interview are not true.
She filed a libel complaint and the director was automatically charged under French law.
Lewis told the court that media coverage following her performance in 2010 caused her a «nervous breakdown» and her then her six-year-old son “had to change schools because everyone was reading the articles.”
She said the Polanski interview in Paris was “the last straw.”
Charlotte Lewis and her lawyer told a Paris court said media coverage following her 2010 speech caused her to have a «nervous breakdown». Photo: ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images
Stuart White, a former journalist who wrote an article for the News of the World in 1999, was also present at the trial.
“The interview I gave to Stuart White, was not the interview that was in the newspaper,” Lewis said Tuesday, adding that she did not discover the article until several years later.
In his disputed report on the actress, Mr Lewis White revealed «how she went from prostitute to Hollywood».
The News of the World has previously been accused of libel and fabricating quotes. It was forced to close in 2011 after its staff were accused of hacking phones in search of stories.
“That was the first evening I met him.”
Delphine Meillet, Polanski’s lawyer, said the article “ Pari Match» no libel.
» Polanski has the right to defend himself in public, as does the woman who accuses him,» she said.
Describing the time she met Polanski in court in 1986, Lewis said she only realized later what had happened to her.
“It was the first night I met him. He decided that the hotel we were staying at wasn't very good.
“So he took us back to his apartment. We went to dinner. Then we came back, Karen, a mutual friend, went to bed, and then he raped me.»
«He became my male role model.»
Asked why it delayed her until the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, referring to the attack, she said: “I didn't realize it was rape.”
“I didn't even know the word. I knew what happened to me was wrong, but I didn't know how to put it into words.
“He was the only grown man in my life. I don't have a father, brother or uncle. I had no other male role model. He became my only male role model. So that was unsettling. Because of this, I became anorexic.”
In 2010, Lewis said she had decided to oppose suggestions by Polanski's legal team that the 1977 rape case was an isolated incident.
Plans for Polanski to preside over the Cesar Awards, the French equivalent of the awards The Oscars were canceled in early 2017 under pressure from feminists.
Between 2017 and 2019, four more women came forward with allegations that Polanski was also abused. them in the 1970s, three of them were minors. He has denied all allegations.
Among them, Marianne Barnard, a California artist, accused him of sexually assaulting her in 1975 after he asked her to pose nude when she was 10.
At the 2020 Cesar Awards, actress Adele Haenel walked out in protest of Polanski's award for An Officer and a Spy.
The director has kept a low profile in recent years. His latest film, The Palace, premiered without him last summer in Venice.
Свежие комментарии