Actress Isild Le Besco denounces “a destructive influence” experienced with director Benoît Jacquot

In an interview given to the newspaper Le Parisien, the actress Isild Le Besco says she lived “a destructive influence” with the filmmaker Benoît Jacquot, with whom she began a relationship when she was 16 and he was 52. The filmmaker is today the target of a complaint from Judith Godrèche for “rape with violence against minors under 15 years of age”. Isild Le Besco had already recognized in Le Monde “psychological or physical violence” from the filmmaker. She has not yet filed a complaint against him.

“On the surface, it was a relationship nourishing beautiful films and, for me, the discovery of a world”explains the actress in Le Parisien, about her relationship with the filmmaker. “But inside, it was also a destructive influence, a loss of self. Psychological violence, above all. Benoît Jacquot thought he knew better than me who I was and what I thought. For example, he perpetually told me that I was fat. There was also physical violence, sometimes, out of anger“.

“A large part of my life has been wasted”

“What is very serious is that, as I experienced this relationship at 16, it was constitutive of my personality”she continues. “One hold begets other holds. Afterwards, I experienced even worse things with other men because I was ready to crush myself for someone. A large part of my life was wasted” .

In this interview, the actress also mentions Jacques Doillon, whom she accuses of having taken away a role from her after refusing his advances: “I was 17 and he asked me to prepare for a role. For weeks I worked improvising and co-directing the script and the day I refused his advances he fired me of the film. He literally plundered me, and not just my work”. She also says “likely” that she files a complaint against the two filmmakers “at one point”.