The story dates back to the 1980s, but was revealed in 2010. British actress Charlotte Lewis, who starred in the film "Pirates" directed by Roman Polanski in 1986, claimed to have been "sexually abused" by the filmmaker in his Parisian apartment in the early 1980s, when she was 16 years old.
In an interview published by
Paris Match
in December 2019, Roman Polanski questioned this testimony.
“You see, the first quality of a good liar is an excellent memory.
We always mention Charlotte Lewis in the list of my accusers without ever noting these contradictions, ”said the 89-year-old Franco-Polish director, targeted by several rape charges.
The accusations ?
An “odious lie” for Polanski
Accusing her of an "odious lie", the filmmaker mentioned remarks attributed to the actress in an interview she had given in 1999 to the British tabloid
News of the World
.
Roman Polanski underlined the following sentence attributed to Charlotte Lewis in 1999: “I knew that Roman had done something bad in the United States, but I wanted to be his mistress (…).
I probably wanted it more than he wanted it."
The actress, however, challenged the veracity of these past remarks in 2010.
Following the interview published in
Paris Match
, Charlotte Lewis' lawyers filed a complaint with a civil action in March 2020, leading to the filmmaker's referral to the criminal court.
Since the end of the 1970s, accusations of sexual abuse have regularly caught up with the life of the man who was born in Paris in 1933 and won three Oscars and a Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Company
Polanski case: Emmanuelle Seigner defends her husband and accuses his victims of lying
Justice
Polanski case: The filmmaker will be tried for defamation of one of the women who accuse him of sexual abuse
Miscellaneous facts
Roman Polansky
Defamation