Roman Polanski Fires Back at the #MeToo Movement
Mark Angelo, CEO, Yorkville Advisors
Sometimes, when you’re caught in the middle of a PR firestorm, your cause gets “help” from a source you really wish would stay out of the narrative altogether. This may be the case for the men currently accused in the #MeToo movement after Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski decided to weigh in on the issue.
Polanski called the movement “total hypocrisy” and “collective hysteria” in a recent Polish edition of Newsweek Magazine. Those comments might be taken at face value had it been anyone else… but this was Polanski, the disgraced filmmaker who escaped the United States four decades ago ahead of charges related to “unlawful sex with a minor.”
The director, who many still consider one of the poster children for statutory rape and the degradation of the entertainment industry, was stripped of his Motion Picture Academy membership, but he cannot escape being used as a constant example of “what’s wrong with the culture of Hollywood.”
For Polanski to speak out on this issue does no one on “his side” any favors, and it gives the #MeToo women even more ammunition for their cause. That didn’t stop Polanski from telling Newsweek that #MeToo was “collective hysteria of the kind that happens sometimes in the society…” then adding that most people are coming aboard the cause “out of fear.”
Many have responded to Polanski’s calls of hypocrisy by, once again, pointing out he remains a prime example of the very charge he is making. After all, he kept dedicated fans in the industry and many continued to speak highly of the director long after his crimes were alleged. In fact, Polanski is still making films, even in self-imposed exile.
It’s possible these inflammatory remarks were made as part of a promotional angle related to promotion of the new film, which is set to debut at a film festival in Polanski’s native Krakow. Though there’s little doubt of any love lost between the director and the Academy that has now spurned him.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Polanski’s attorney, Jan Olszewski, said the filmmaker was very angry – even “indignant” – about being booted by the Academy. Olszewski himself described the Academy’s actions as “psychological abuse of an elderly person…”
Once again, someone in the Polanski camp provided ammunition for those who would use him as an example of everything they stand against. Supporters of the #MeToo movement reacted with derision when they heard the attorney’s remarks about his client, saying an alleged “sexual abuser” decrying “psychological abuse” as beyond laughable.
