Sued for defamation by British actress Charlotte Lewis, filmmaker Roman Polanski was acquitted on Tuesday by the Paris judicial court. The 90-year-old director, accused of sexual assault and rape by several women, including Charlotte Lewis, described the latter’s accusations as “odious lies”.
The judges of the 17th criminal chamber, specializing in press cases, did not have to rule on whether Roman Polanski raped the British actress or not but only whether or not the filmmaker made abusive use of her freedom of expression in an interview published by Paris Match in December 2019. In this interview, the director of Rosemary’s Baby described the actress’s accusations as “odious lies”.
“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,” added the director. In 2010, during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, Charlotte Lewis recounted having been attacked during a casting organized at Roman Polanski’s house in Paris in 1983, when she was 16 years old. To illustrate the “contradictions” according to them of the complainant, Roman Polanski’s lawyers had unearthed during the trial an interview given by the actress in 1999 to the tabloid News of the World where she expressed her admiration for the director who entrusted her with in 1986 a role in his film Pirates.