(Paris) The Franco-Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski will be tried for defamation on March 5, 2024 for having questioned the veracity of the accusations of sexual abuse brought against him by the British actress Charlotte Lewis, decided on Tuesday the correctional court of Paris.
In 2010, the actress, who had shot in the film Pirates directed by Roman Polanski in 1986, claimed to have been “sexually abused” by the filmmaker in his Paris apartment in the early 1980s, when she was 16 years old.
In an interview published by Paris Match in December 2019, Mr. Polanski had questioned this testimony.
“You see, the first quality of a good liar is an excellent memory. Charlotte Lewis is always mentioned in the list of my accusers without ever noticing these contradictions, ”said the 89-year-old director, targeted by several rape charges.
Accusing her of a “heinous 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.
The filmmaker underlined the following sentence attributed to Mme Lewis in 1999: “I knew Roman had done something wrong 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. “Many of the quotes attributed to me in the article by News of the World are not accurate,” she said.
Following the interview published in the magazine Paris MatchCharlotte Lewis’s lawyers had filed a complaint with civil action in March 2020, leading to the filmmaker’s referral to the criminal court.
Contacted by AFP, Me Delphine Meillet, one of Mr. Polanski’s lawyers, declined to comment.
Since the late 1970s, accusations of sexual abuse have regularly caught up with the man who was born in Paris in 1933 and won three Oscars and a Palme d’Or at Cannes.