As we discussed last week, Roman Polanski was kicked out of the Academy of Motion Picture and Sciences. AMPAS kicked out Polanski and Bill Cosby on the same day. Cosby still hasn’t said anything about it (or if he has, I haven’t cared?), but Polanski’s lawyer threw a hissy fit about AMPAS’s decision. I reminded everyone that just in the past year, additional victims have come forward to tell their stories of how Polanski abused them when they were underage as well. So, obviously, I guess we had to hear from Roman Polanski himself. Here’s what the a–hole had to say:
“Everyone is trying to back this movement, mainly out of fear,” Polanski said, according to the Agence France-Presse. “I think it’s total hypocrisy. I think this is the kind of mass hysteria that occurs in society from time to time…Sometimes it’s very dramatic, like the French Revolution or the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in France, or sometimes it’s less bloody, like 1968 in Poland or McCarthyism in the US.”
Ah, yes, the #MeToo movement is the New McCarthyism. McCarthyism was, in the larger sense, a sideshow of the Cold War in which artists were punished and blacklisted for having any kind of sympathies for or interest in communism. The #MeToo movement is about outing predators and allowing victims to tell their stories and be believed. Roman Polanski, a known and established rapist and sexual predator, calling the #MeToo movement “McCarthyism” is basically the equivalent of Donald Trump screeching “witch hunt” every day.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Polanski sodomized and raped a 13 year old girl. He is a convicted rapist.
Is there something else I need to know about him?
No.
drugged, sodomized and raped.
he’s a disgusting piece of sh*t and I wish there would be justice. I mean, I know he’s not going to jail but I wish people would at least stop celebrating him and giving him work.
Drugged, sodomized, raped a 13-year-old girl and when convicted FLED THE COUNTRY TO AVOID PRISON.
Thank you, I don’t need his words, the conviction alone speaks volumes.
This.
he’s human garbage and i hope karma comes for him in a big, terrible way. he attacked that poor child in the worst way and hollywood praised him. he’s a child rapist, that is his legacy
He spent 40 years escaping from justice.
And fled the country….
I shouted at my TV the other day when a news anchor said Polanski “had sex with a 13 year old”. That isn’t “having sex”, that is rape and sexual abuse.
“Oh tell us more Roman” ~Said no one ever
Would you really expect any less from him?
That’s cool Roman, you call the #metoo movement a “witch hunt”, but we’ll call you what you are – a paedophile, a rapist and a fugitive.
@ANNA222, you took the words out my damn mouth.
Does him getting kicked out give the green light to the industry to stop working with him, or will they find an excuse?
Go away.
Of course the child rapist would compare people being upset and fed up with rapists to McCarthyism.
He literally raped a child and got away with it.
Oh Fk this predator! What a P.O.S this guy is. Rancid crusty, dusty old man. You are a convicted pedophile. Spare me your irrelevant thoughts on this subject.
After all these many years, it’s still shocking to see he has absolutely no remorse.
Yes because women and especially children are so powerful right. We are just taking our huge power and inflicting a systematic and drastic persecution of the poor, helpless males.
Oh wait.
When we this waste of space fade into the ether?
I’m kind of hoping for a horrible series of tragic events more than a fade out. But a fade out would bother him so much more, I think.
The thing is, I can’t imagine a more “horrible series of tragic events” than what happened to his wife and child. It’s like karma happened in reverse for him… and still, somehow, it’s not enough. HE is the one who deserves to suffer right now, with zero sympathy and zero delay.
He also survived the Krakow ghetto as a child. His mother was deported to Auschwitz where she died, and his father to Mathausen. Polanski was smuggled out of the ghetto shortly afterwards – at 6 or 7, I believe – and he survived until the Liberation.
And then the Sharon Tate and their baby murders.
It’s no excuse. There can be no excuse. But it’s why some otherwise decent people have believed his rationalisations and lies over the child rapes, I think. He had a large reservoir of sympathy over undeniably horrific earlier life experiences.
Irrelevant old fart says what?
We need to stop feeding the egos of these perverse individuals. They have no conscience and live for any forum that gives them oxygen.
Polanski is especially despicable—a pedophile and rapist, cowering from justice, shouting out to anyone within hearing distance “Look at me—I’m still relevant!”
You may succeed in evading justice for your crimes, Mr. Polanski, but you are a rapidly fading fart, dissipating forever into the ether, gas returning to gas.
I dont even get why he would sue them. He is convicted and cant enter the USA anyway. So why is he so desperate to stay in the academy? Its like he doesnt get that being thrown out really isnt the worst thing people will remember about him.
What a strange set of historical parallels. Is he talking about the student protests of 1968 or the anti-Jewish party purges in Poland and antisemitic expulsions? If latter, why stop there, why not compare #metoo to the Holocaust while you’re at it, Polanski? And 1572? Really? A few men losing their jobs is similar to thousands or tens of thousands of people dying violent deaths, frequently at the hands of their neighbors? He might be on to something with French Rev though – let’s hope this feminist movement transforms European and American (and global) ideas of time and politics!
I mean we could play this game forever. #metoo is like Gandhi, other forms of anti-colonialism, the civil rights movement (an opposition to a set of accepted practices within a system that is built around making violence invisible and mundane). It’s like the fight for women’s suffrage (inventing new languages of political participation). It’s like this, it’s like that, but as you said Kaiser, fundamentally it’s about not accepting the rape of a twelve-year old girl in the name of genius. And I grew up on Polanski’s films, loved them, read his tragic family story – still canceled.
Pretty sure he’s talking about the March Poland protests of 1968, and I don’t think he is comparing them by deaths, remember he does say some are less bloody. He is comparing them by mass hysteria, and there is a bit of of mob think with all of these events and #metoo, whereas nuance ideas do not find much air. Mob think comes with every revolution to some degree. I think all of these events and hopefully #metoo are more similar because they created dramatic social and cultural shifts. For the #metoo event to be compared to the French Revolution is an amazing comparison. Even if that is not what the way he meant his comment. Hopefully, #metoo will have as big of a dramatic and lasting impact, and maybe more.
What a vile human being.
He would. That’s exactly what he would think. I have no doubt he genuinely believes that.
People, no matter how terrible, always want to believe that they are good people. Or if not exactly good people, then not bad people, and certainly not wrong in their actions. That’s why racists love to have token minority friends, and misogynists love to have women chasing after them. Rapists want to believe that it’s somehow the victim’s fault, as do abusers. They aren’t the bad guy, the victim “made them do it!” Narcissists lash out and cause harm and pain to others because “everyone is out to get them” and their ego, in their own mind, is the most precious thing in the universe. Of course they will defend it with an iron fist and smite any who dare to oppose them! There’s always an excuse, and nobody wants to face their poor behavior.
So yeah, it’s a “witch hunt”, it’s “hyperbole”, it’s “mass hysteria”, it’s “hypocrisy”. It’s anything, anything at all except “I and others like me have done terrible things”.
A year after his arrest, he gave an interview in which he said : “Judges want to f*ck young girls. Juries want to f*ck young girls – everyone wants to f*ck young girls!”. Martin Amis (the author leading the interview) noted that Polanski didn’t seem to even understand that “the paedophile is stealing childhoods”. In his sick mind, all men are pedophiles like him and that’s why he thinks people are “hypocrites”.
And I’m not surprised he thinks the Metoo movement is “mass hysteria”. Here’s another quote from him: “I think the Pill altered female thinking. When you think that millions of women were taking daily hormones, you cannot deny that it must have changed their personalities. I truly don’t think that feminism would reach such absurd proportions if there were no Pill. It must have had an effect.”
Well, he’s not wrong about the Pill thing. I mean, he doesn’t understand in the slightest WHY, it’s not “hormones changing personalities”, but yes, the Pill and other contraceptives really did make a difference in the feminist movement. No longer were women subjugated by the threat of unwanted pregnancy, and the freedom that granted was a big deal. Of course that’s no good to men like him who would vastly prefer women stay “where they belong” and not have lives and opinions of their own. Because then it takes more mental gymnastics to justify his treatment of them.
I agree with Wren
The Pill was a real liberation for woman IMHO
Again, why is this child rapist not extradited to the United States? It’s a mystery to me. I mean, every day people are extradited from one continent to another for tax evasion, for God’s sake, and this POS could get away for decades with raping a 13 years old, when he was convicted and admitted his guilt? I just don’t get it.
He is a French citizen and French legislation doesn’t allow its citizens to be extradited to another country, I think.
LOL, remember when “it was just one rape!!!” was an actual argument used in favor of this guy? I predicted years ago that other victims would come forward later. What a surprise. A white-passing, wealthy man actually facing consequences for his actions.
Why is anyone still interviewing him? Can we move on? I’m over him and his fellow criminals.
Sexual abuse is the only crime where the perpetrators get to have “an opinion”. Disgusting.
He compares himself to those persecuted by McCarthy? People were persecuted for their political beliefs, not for being child rapists. It’s unbelievable that Hollywood has coddled this awful criminal for all of these years. Gross.
I hate this man. He is a rapist who has spent decades playing the victim.
Me too would be like McCarthyism if every single man accused of communism actually got caught red handed with a sickle tattoo, writing a check to the Soviet Union with one hand and jerking off to a copy of Das Kapital with the other.
hahaha priceless. please tweet this
This!
Good. I’m glad he doesn’t like the movement. You know, it ain’t a witch hunt if the witches are the ones doing the hunting 😉
I’d like to see him and Trump share a cell. That would make me smile.
Finally after how many years. He should have been kicked out decades ago. He is an awful waste of flesh.
I saw the headline and immediately saw red. The things that should happen to this man are things that won’t leave him resembling a human by the time someone is done with him. Now is the time we need Ramsey Bolton to put his banner to use.
Do we really care what a convicted rapist has to say on any subject, let alone this one?
No, I don’t think so.
Why should we care what a pedophile rapist thinks. Go F#%K yourself Roman!!!
I just threw up in my mouth. Wish it had been in his.
He is a monster.
Pedophile and rapist.
He’s a creep but I agree with what he’s saying re #metoo. “Some” of these women had a choice and they made the wrong one knowing it was wrong. They knowingly went along with something they knew didn’t sit well with their gut, took money and then years later come out and potentially ruin not only the mans life but that of his wife and children. I know this isn’t a popular opinion on here but I’ve been put into those positions and would never jeopardize my integrity for mo eye or a job.
Money
“I’ve been put into those positions and would never jeopardize my integrity for money or a job.”
And thanks to the women speaking out, our daughters hopefully won’t be put in positions where they have to choose.
The women speaking out aren’t ruining these men’s lives. These men’s choices ruined a lot of lives, including, finally, their own. The fact they never expected any of the harm and hurt to land on their own doorsteps doesn’t make it less than justice, now that it is.
If someone holds a knife to coerce sex, presumably you agree that they’re a monster. But someone threatens a career to coerce sex, and you think they’re a victim? I think you need to think through your logic, here.
The key word is “some”. I would never have taken money, stripped or performed a sex act for anyone for anything. I had a choice. I chose my dignity and integrity. No amount of money is worth losing that. No career is worth it. The guy has to live with himself. And down the road if he has a daughter he has to live with the fact that it could happen to her. So my choice can affect an innocent child or another women. It’s taking responsibility for myself and my choices from the past. It’s not “simple”! The hysteria is not helping the actual victims.
“The guy has to live with himself. And down the road if he has a daughter he has to live with the fact that it could happen to her. ”
This recidivist child rapist appears to you to be struggling to live with himself, does he? Showing a lot of remorse, hey? Feeling bad for anally raping a drugged child while she sobbed for her mother? No. No, he’s not, is he? Perhaps it’s his lack of a daughter that’s the issue? I mean, so many appear to need to cite a daughter, in order to see women as people.
Look, if your version of “dignity” includes defending sexual predators while attacking their chosen victims, when those women have had the immense courage to stand up and be counted even in the full knowledge that people such as you will attack them… well, it is a version of “dignity” I can neither recognise nor respect. It sounds an awful lot like misogyny and victim-blaming to me. The old, “well, I’m a good girl so things like this don’t happen to me, they just happen to whores out to ruin men’s lives, they were asking for it, what more do they expect…” routine. It’s been used to shield abusers for generations and it’s vile, bluntly. Really, really vile.
And yes, it is simple: consent is simple. These men coerced. They bullied. They abused power. That is wrong. You can try to apply as much lipstick as you want to this particular pig: it doesn’t change the facts.
We get it, Claire, you’re not like the other women, like the weak and amoral women who gave up their integrity and dignity.
Putting a glass ceiling on a woman’s career with the only way to progress being f-cking one’s way through it is on those in the position of power. Holding a career hostage for sex is on those who are holding one’s career hostage.
Imagine this: reluctantly have sex with the man (or a woman) who can make your career in return, or give up your dream (and living one’s dream is every bit as important to the happiness, the contentment of an individual as their safety). Not a good position to be in, but a position so many women and men with less power constantly find themselves in.
And the power players can get away with it, because money. They can perpetuate this abuse infinitely because they’re protected as long as they can make money for someone.
Ugh.
…I quite like the fact that Polanski has basically been excluded from hwood for 30+ years tho…
the french revolution was not the result of mass hysteria. an abusive, entitled monarch got what he deserved. polanski – you triggered?
What Sharon Tate saw in this man, I’ll never know.