Flashback: February 28, 2020 is the 45th edition of the César. Director Roman Polanski is nominated in no less than twelve categories with his film I accuse, even as the controversy swells in the midst of a wave #MeToo since the latter is accused of rape by several women. On stage, Florence Foresti plays the mistress of ceremonies as best she can, but her tone, her humor and her spikes will create tensions in French cinema. Lambert Wilson is then one of those who set fire to the comedian after the evening.
On France Info, Lambert Wilson did not go hand in hand to tackle Florence Foresti – who had not wanted to return on stage for the family photo at the end of the evening – but also Adele Haenel, who had left the room after being awarded by Roman Polanski the award for Best Director. “I am very angry. It makes no sense. If we feel that there is something wrong with Polanski having nominations, then we don’t come and go in the middle of the ceremony. Dare to talk about a director in these terms [l’humoriste avait notamment blagué sur sa petite taille, NDLR]… And in addition, what will we learn from the lives of these people compared to the enormity of the myth of Polanski? Who are these people ? They are tiny!“, he said then, with an obvious bias for the maligned director who has been fleeing American justice for several decades.
Guest ofAs an aside on December 21, 2021, Lambert Wilson returned to this divisive ceremony; the next one, hosted by Marina Foïs who had just as much unleashed passions for other reasons. “I expressed reservations about the Caesar ceremony and more particularly about the way it had gone and the way Florence Foresti had conducted her mastery of ceremonies regarding Polanski. And the result of that was that I got fired from Greenpeace“, he confided.
The film actor Matrix, Barbecue – with Florence Foresti! -, Men and gods or De Gaulle was therefore sanctioned after his virulent comments. And he’s got it across his throat again. “I had been working as an activist for twenty years, we got up at dawn, I went to Brazil with them … I was really a spokesperson for Greenpeace and because I expressed something that seemed to support the Polanski case, which was not the case, I was only expressing a sort of reservation on the attitude of my comrade. This is what we call today the cancel mentality … I was fired two days later without any other form of trial (…) I was told: ‘Greenpeace underwriters cannot stand someone who supports these words.’“, he added. There is no doubt that he will be more vigilant next time around before distributing the tackles.