Polanski’s rape victim director defends wife: ‘What happened was never an issue’

POLANSKI

Samantha Geimer, who was raped by Roman Polanski as an underage teenager, has again come out and denied being a victim – this time in an interview with Polanski’s wife Emmanuelle Seigner.

Geimer, who was 13 when she was raped with alcohol and pills by the Franco-Polish film director, told Seigner in an interview in Le Point magazine (translated by IndieWire) that what happened “never gave me a problem was what she was.

She said: ‘Let me be very clear: what happened to Polanski was never a big deal to me. I didn’t even know it was illegal for someone to be arrested for it. I was good, I’m still good. The fact that we dreamed this thing weighs heavily on me. To keep repeating that it was not a problem is a terrible burden.”

In the interview, Geimer and Seigner agree on the limits of the #MeToo movement, with Geimer calling out attorney Gloria Allred, saying she “just shrinks women to profit from their pain.” I’m sorry, but that’s not a defense.”

And together they look back to the 1970s, when “sex was recreational, sometimes transactional,” according to Geimer.

Seigner adds: “I remember when I first started working. I became a model when I was 14. All the girls, the models, slept with the photographers and I was no exception. But sex was normal, a natural part of life. There wasn’t all that drama, all that darkness around the sex.”

Geimer expressed her belief that she was not victimized by Polanski, but rather by the media and legal attention she has received over the past few decades.

“If somebody had something to say about Roman, about assault, 1977 would have been a very good year to help me,” she told Seigner.

“Because we couldn’t even leave our house with my family! Everyone attacked us. Nobody came up to me and said, ‘Hey, you know what? I believe she is telling the truth because something similar happened to me.’ It’s not like the story was private, it was in newspapers all over the world! But no, no one, not one of the women who claim to have had a problem with Roman today, bothered to contact me. And now that you urgently need to unpack everything? Who are they kidding?

“I have seen many people come to me and say they have the best intentions in the world and say: ‘Come on, talk, the world wants to know, they want to know the truth. The truth is, all they think about is their careers and their TV shows.

Polanski has not been to the United States since 1978. He was charged with the rape of a minor and pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of unlawful sex with a minor, but after learning that the judge intended to dismiss it and impose a prison sentence, he fled to Europe. Since then, several other women have accused the director of teenage rape, and an Interpol warrant for his arrest remains in effect.

Since then he has been nominated for an Oscar five times and won it as best director The pianist in 2003.