A defamation lawsuit in Paris has been ordered against Roman Polanski following a complaint by actress Charlotte Lewis for remarks in which the filmmaker questioned the veracity of the sexual abuse of which she accuses him, AFP has learned Wednesday, September 14 from a source familiar with the matter. In question, an interview with the filmmaker granted to Paris Match in 2019 where he defends himself against accusations of sexual abuse against Charlotte Lewis by calling them lies. Polanski, 89 and never tried before in France in a case relating to accusations of sexual abuse, was returned to the Paris Criminal Court by an order of August 30, on a date so far not fixed.
The merits of the charges will be examined at the hearing. Solicited, the lawyers of Roman Polanski, Hervé Temime and Delphine Meillet, did not wish to comment and “reserve their explanations for the court”. The second added that she “did not know if Roman Polanski intended to appear” or would be represented at the hearing.
The publishing director of Paris Match, who had published the interview in question, will also be judged in this case. In a long interview published by the weekly in December 2019, the filmmaker declared in particular: “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 pointing out her contradictions.
Rape charges
“It’s almost time for the hearing. We await it with envy and serenity,” welcomed Wednesday Benjamin Chouai, lawyer for the British actress with Fabrice Epstein. He had filed a complaint with civil action in March 2020. Charlotte Lewis, born in 1967, had shot in the film Pirates, directed by Roman Polanski in 1986. In 2010, she claimed to have been “sexually abused” by the filmmaker, in her Paris apartment in the early 1980s, when she was 16 years old.
But Roman Polanski, targeted by other rape charges, had stressed in his interview with Paris Match of the «contradictions» with his remarks from 2010 and a “odious lie” from Charlotte Lewis, referring to a 1999 interview she gave to the British tabloid News of the World. The filmmaker underlined the following sentence attributed to the actress 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. “Number of the quotes attributed to me in the article by News of the World are not correct, she had said.