Speaker 1: This show contains mature content and adult themes. It may
Speaker 1: not be suitable for young audiences.
Speaker 2: In twenty seventeen, Harvey Weinstein was outed as a serial
Speaker 2: sexual abuser. Many brave women came forward and told their stories.
Speaker 2: They exposed one of Hollywood's most powerful moguls as a
Speaker 2: vicious sexual predator who operated horrifically and seemingly without consequences.
Speaker 2: But Weinstein was standing on the shoulders of monsters. For
Speaker 2: so many years, those monsters remained unchecked in Hollywood, shielded
Speaker 2: by the millions of dollars they made for their studios.
Speaker 2: Sex for fame is not new. In fact, it's as
Speaker 2: old as Hollywood itself. There are few sex scandals more
Speaker 2: infamous in Hollywood than Roman Polanski's statutory rape of a
Speaker 2: thirteen year old girl. Polanski was one of the most
Speaker 2: innovative and influential directors of the last century. Rosemary's Baby,
Speaker 2: which he directed in nineteen sixty eight, reinvented the horror movie,
Speaker 2: and Chinatown in nineteen seventy four, reinterpreted noir film for
Speaker 2: modern audiences. But Polanski is arguably more famous today for
Speaker 2: his guilty plea on his statutory rape charge in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy seven than he is for winning the Best Director
Speaker 2: Oscar for The Pianist in two thousand and three. In
Speaker 2: today's episode of Variety Confidential, will open Variety's archives to
Speaker 2: separate fact from fiction about Roman Polanski, the scandal that
Speaker 2: has plagued Hollywood for nearly fifty years. From Variety in
Speaker 2: iHeart Podcasts, I'm Tracy Patton. This is the Secret history
Speaker 2: of the Casting Couch. Today's episode disgraced genius Roman Polanski
Speaker 2: in the studio with me today is Matt Donnelly, Variety's
Speaker 2: senior Entertainment and Media writer. Hi, Matt, Hi, It's great
Speaker 2: to be back, and it's all was so great to
Speaker 2: have your insight into the industry.
Speaker 3: Well, this case is certainly fascinating, and I think one
Speaker 3: of the most important things to know about Polanski that
Speaker 3: modern audiences may not is that he represented something so
Speaker 3: exciting and new in cinema in the sixties and seventies.
Speaker 3: So it's not just that he was a successful director,
Speaker 3: but really a celebrity in his own right for what
Speaker 3: he represented. And I think all of that vision came
Speaker 3: with power, and I think a lot of that, you know, flash,
Speaker 3: and a lot of that integrity and a lot of
Speaker 3: that prestige blinded many he worked with to behavior that
Speaker 3: was going on behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: Yes, and later in the show, we'll discuss the outpouring
Speaker 2: of support in Hollywood for Polanski in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 2: thirty years after he pleaded guilty to statutory rape. And
Speaker 2: then we'll look at some of the big names in
Speaker 2: Hollywood who reconsidered that support in the me Too era.
Speaker 3: And a small spoiler, one person who did not walk
Speaker 3: back his support for Polanski was Harvey Weinstein and we're.
Speaker 2: Going to talk about that too at the end of
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 3: So, Roman Polanski is considered one of the top film
Speaker 3: directors of the past sixty years, but a lot of
Speaker 3: people today might not know exactly who he is.
Speaker 2: Yes, and it's likely that even people who've never heard
Speaker 2: of Polanski or who've never seen Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby
Speaker 2: have probably heard of his wife, the beautiful young actress
Speaker 2: Sharon Tate. Her fame came through a tragedy. She was
Speaker 2: murdered by members of the Charles Manson cult in August
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine. Sharon and four HouseGuests were killed in
Speaker 2: her home in LA's Benedict Canyon, making it even more tragic,
Speaker 2: Sharon was pregnant and due to deliver in just ten days.
Speaker 2: But the gruesome murder of his wife and unborn son
Speaker 2: was not the first tragedy Roman had experienced. As a
Speaker 2: child in Poland, he watched helplessly as a gang of
Speaker 2: Nazi soldiers dragged his mother away. He never saw her again.
Speaker 2: Polanski's arrest for statutory rape came just seven years after
Speaker 2: his wife and unborn son were murdered. Facing a long
Speaker 2: prison sentence, he fled the country in February nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: eight and has never returned. Roman Polanski continued to make
Speaker 2: movies in Europe while in exile from the United States.
Speaker 2: He has won Golden Globe Awards and Oscar and prizes
Speaker 2: at the top festivals. In two thousand and nine, dozens
Speaker 2: of Hollywood directors, producers, and stars signed a petition in
Speaker 2: support of ending Polanski's exile. But in recent years, more
Speaker 2: women have come forward to accuse Polansky of sexual abuse,
Speaker 2: and as a result of the Me Too movement, many
Speaker 2: of Roman's former supporters have publicly disavowed him.
Speaker 3: Now, of course, we want to discuss more about that
Speaker 3: rape charge. But first let's talk about his early life.
Speaker 2: Yes, he was born in Paris in nineteen thirty three.
Speaker 2: His parents, who were Polish Jews, returned to Poland in
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty six. Three years after they moved to Krakau,
Speaker 2: the Nazis invaded Poland when Roman was six years old.
Speaker 2: His family and all the other Jews were confined into
Speaker 2: the city's ghetto. As conditions deteriorated, food and water became scarce,
Speaker 2: and then the Nazis started arresting people, even entire families,
Speaker 2: and taking them to the death camps. After and during
Speaker 2: months of this, a traumatic event up ended Roman's life.
Speaker 2: He watched from a hiding place as Nazi soldiers dragged
Speaker 2: his mother out of their house. He never saw her again.
Speaker 2: They came back later and took his father, uncle, and
Speaker 2: other family members. As the war raged on around him,
Speaker 2: Roman survived by living on the streets and then for
Speaker 2: a few years in the country with a Catholic family.
Speaker 2: When the war ended, his father and uncle were liberated
Speaker 2: from the camps. They were reunited in the ghetto, and
Speaker 2: at age twelve, Roman began putting the pieces of his
Speaker 2: life back together. After his schooling resumed, he found his
Speaker 2: calling in filmmaking in the early nineteen fifties. He attended
Speaker 2: a film school in the city of Lots where he
Speaker 2: made a series of experiments until short films.
Speaker 3: By Now it's nineteen sixty two and Polanski makes his
Speaker 3: first full length feature film, Knife in the Water. Now.
Speaker 3: This was an atmosphere of drama about a couple who
Speaker 3: encounters a young hitchhiker, which creates trouble in their marriage,
Speaker 3: and it.
Speaker 2: Earned a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination in nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: three and won a BAFT Award and a prize at
Speaker 2: the Venice Film Festival the following year. Polanski was broke
Speaker 2: then so As Travels were funded by a Polish American
Speaker 2: film producer named Jeane Kutowski. After the success of Knife
Speaker 2: in the Water they formed Cadre Films, with Gutowski as
Speaker 2: producer and Polanski as director. Their first project is Cadre
Speaker 2: was Repulsion, in which a beautiful woman racked with sexual
Speaker 2: phobias has a psychotic breakdown in her London apartment. It
Speaker 2: was an international breakthrough for Catherine Deneuve, who had made
Speaker 2: more than a dozen films in France, including the classic
Speaker 2: The Umbrellas of Scherbourg. Repulsion proved to be a game
Speaker 2: changer for Polanski, with critics calling him the new Alfred Hitchcock.
Speaker 2: It had its detractors, but it was a critical and
Speaker 2: financial success, and won top prizes at the Venice and
Speaker 2: Berlin Film festivals. Cadre was less successful with their next project,
Speaker 2: a bizarre comedy horror film titled cul de Sac. It
Speaker 2: opened in nineteen sixty six to mixed reviews and mediocre
Speaker 2: box office receipts. Cadre was on the brink of bankruptcy
Speaker 2: when Polanski and Gutowski met American film and television producer
Speaker 2: Martin Ransahoff at a party in London. Ransahoff owned Film Ways,
Speaker 2: the producer of hit sitcoms like The Beverly Hillbillies, Green
Speaker 2: Acres and The Adams Family. Also at the party was
Speaker 2: a striking, aspiring actress named Sharon Tate. She would be
Speaker 2: featured in Polanski's next film, The Fearless Vampire Killers, which
Speaker 2: was produced by Cadre and Film Ways. There was no
Speaker 2: love at first sight between Roman and Sharon. He hadn't
Speaker 2: intended to cast her, but Martin Ransahoff had insisted their
Speaker 2: romance would develop after the production ended the Fears. Vampire Killers,
Speaker 2: another horror comedy, was panned by the critics and did
Speaker 2: poorly at the box office. Polanski blamed Ransahoff for turning
Speaker 2: the movie into a Transylvanian Beverly Hillbillies. Caudre's next deal
Speaker 2: would produce Polanski's biggest hit to date, Rosemary's Baby, the
Speaker 2: story of a Manhattan woman who was pregnant with Satan's child.
Speaker 2: It was also Polanski's first US production, with filming in
Speaker 2: both Hollywood and New York. Variety reported, with a budget
Speaker 2: of three point two million dollars, the movie was one
Speaker 2: of nineteen sixty eight's biggest winners, bringing twelve point three
Speaker 2: million dollars in box office grosses. To Paramount, that revenue
Speaker 2: today would be one hundred and eight point seven million dollars.
Speaker 2: The success of Rosemary's Baby changed Polanski's life. He'd found
Speaker 2: love with Sharon Tate, and he'd been welcomed into a
Speaker 2: group of celebrated actors and directors that included Warren Baby,
Speaker 2: Jack Nicholson, and Martin Scorsese. Variety's former Edge in chief
Speaker 2: Peter Bart said, Roman started to like this community. He
Speaker 2: loved the fast life. He became a real star. He
Speaker 2: got good tables and restaurants that had not been part
Speaker 2: of his life. You could see him change to a degree.
Speaker 2: The unthinkable happened to Roman. He was actually happy.
Speaker 3: So Pulansky and Sharon Tate were married on January twentieth,
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty eight, and a year and a half later,
Speaker 3: when Sharon was pregnant with their first child. They rented
Speaker 3: a house on Ciellow Drive in the hills above LA's
Speaker 3: Benedict Canyon, and.
Speaker 2: The Polansky spent the first half of nineteen sixty nine
Speaker 2: in Europe. In early August, Roman sent Sharon home by boat.
Speaker 2: He believed she was too pregnant to fly. She objected
Speaker 2: to the separation, but he promised to be in Los
Speaker 2: Angeles when the baby was born. He said he was
Speaker 2: staying in London to work on a movie project, but
Speaker 2: after he put Sharon on the ship, Roman reverted to
Speaker 2: his old ways and began hooking up with random women
Speaker 2: every night. He spent the night before the murders with
Speaker 2: a flight attendant. He got the call around ten pm
Speaker 2: London time. Sharon and four of their friends had been
Speaker 2: shot a knife to death at his home in Benedict Canyon.
Speaker 3: It's incredibly tragic. After the murders, Roman became a sort
Speaker 3: of sympathetic figure in Hollywood this tragic survivor, and the
Speaker 3: community continued to support him into the early nineteen seventies,
Speaker 3: even though his next few films really failed to connect
Speaker 3: with audiences.
Speaker 2: There were three films, Polanski's version of Shakespeare's Macbeth in
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one, and two movies released in nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 2: Weekend of a Champion and a film titled What. Together,
Speaker 2: they grossed just one million dollars. Despite this poor showing,
Speaker 2: Roman's friend Robert Evans, then the vice president of global
Speaker 2: production at Paramount, hired him to direct Chinatown. It was
Speaker 2: the story of a private detective's investigation into the death
Speaker 2: of a Los Angeles water company official and his wife's
Speaker 2: secret incestuous past. Released in nineteen six seventy four, Chinatown
Speaker 2: became an instant film noir classic. It was also a
Speaker 2: financial success. It cost three million dollars to make and
Speaker 2: grossed twenty nine million dollars worldwide, which would be about
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty one million dollars today. Chinatown was
Speaker 2: nominated for eleven Oscars, including a Best Director nomination for Polanski,
Speaker 2: he lost to Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Part two.
Speaker 2: The last film Polanski directed before the scandal erupted was
Speaker 2: The Tenant, a Koff Guy esque thriller about a man
Speaker 2: played by Polanski who moves into an apartment where the
Speaker 2: previous tenant attempted suicide. Filmed in Paris and released by
Speaker 2: Paramount in nineteen seventy six, it grossed one point nine
Speaker 2: million dollars, which is about ten million dollars today.
Speaker 3: In February of ninety seven, Polanski flew into Los Angeles
Speaker 3: from Paris on business. He had meetings about an upcoming
Speaker 3: film project, and was also there to shoot a photo
Speaker 3: spread of young teen girls for Vogue OM, a frenchman's magazine.
Speaker 2: His model was Samantha Gaily, the thirteen year old daughter
Speaker 2: of a woman Polansky had picked up in a bar
Speaker 2: a year earlier. The mother would later say she thought
Speaker 2: the shoot was for French Vogue. A spread in French
Speaker 2: Vogue would have been a great first credit on Samantha's
Speaker 2: modeling resume, but Vogue OM was known for its racy pictorials.
Speaker 2: Near the end of the shoot, second day Polanski photographed
Speaker 2: Samantha at Jack Nicholson's house on Mulholland Drive. Nicholson was
Speaker 2: out of town at the time, but he and Polansky
Speaker 2: were good friends, and Roman felt free to shoot at
Speaker 2: the house without permission. They took some photos outside and
Speaker 2: then moved into the house, where Polanski photographed her in
Speaker 2: a bikini in the jacuzzi. She was nervous, so Polanski
Speaker 2: gave her a glass of champagne, but she balked when
Speaker 2: he told her to take off her top, so Polanski
Speaker 2: told her to call her mother and ask if it
Speaker 2: was okay. Samantha's mother asked if anyone else was there
Speaker 2: with them. Roman told Samantha to say that Angelica Houston,
Speaker 2: Jack Nicholson's girlfriend, was in the house, but of course
Speaker 2: she was not. After the call, Polanski gave Samantha a Quelude,
Speaker 2: a sedative that was said to be an aphrodisiac. As
Speaker 2: he photographed her topless in the jacuzzie, the pill took effect.
Speaker 2: Polanski took her into a guest bedroom where he sexually
Speaker 2: assaulted her, violating her orally, vaginally and anally. She told
Speaker 2: him to stop, but later she says she didn't really
Speaker 2: fight him because there was no one else there and
Speaker 2: I had no place to go. It ended abruptly with
Speaker 2: a knock at the guest bedroom door. Angelica Houston had
Speaker 2: come home unexpectedly. Samantha hid under the covers while Roman
Speaker 2: and Angelica argued in the hallway. Afterwards, Samantha and Roman
Speaker 2: dressed in a hurry and left the house. On the
Speaker 2: drive back to her mother's house in Woodland Hills, Roman
Speaker 2: made Samantha promise not to tell anyone they had sex.
Speaker 2: She says she would keep their secret, but as soon
Speaker 2: as she got home, her boyfriend came over and she
Speaker 2: told him everything. Her sister overheard that conversation and told
Speaker 2: their mother. After confronting Samantha, her mother called the police.
Speaker 3: Roman was arrested at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and, like
Speaker 3: anyone else who would be that news ran on front
Speaker 3: pages around the world. He was in and out of
Speaker 3: courtrooms as the scandal played out over the next few months,
Speaker 3: and in August of nineteen seventy seven, he pleaded guilty
Speaker 3: to statutory rape.
Speaker 2: Polanski and his lawyers had assumed that as part of
Speaker 2: the plea deal, he would not serve time, and when
Speaker 2: it appeared that the judge was considering a prison sentence anyway,
Speaker 2: Roman boarded a flight for Europe. He never returned to
Speaker 2: the United States after that.
Speaker 3: It's interesting that at the time of Pulanski's arrest, Hollywood
Speaker 3: reacted with shock and outrage, but as time passed, attitudes
Speaker 3: began to soften. It seemed that his genius as a
Speaker 3: filmmaker outweighed this appalling behavior.
Speaker 2: And he directed fifteen films in Europe prior to twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three, often working with top stars like Johnny Depp,
Speaker 2: Adrian Brody, Sigourney Weaver, and Kate Winslet. Notable among the
Speaker 2: European films were Tests, released in nineteen seventy nine, and
Speaker 2: The Pianist, released in two thousand and two. Tests was
Speaker 2: based on a nineteenth century novel and starred Natasha Kinski,
Speaker 2: who Roman had dated when she was fifteen. It grows
Speaker 2: twenty million dollars worldwide or about eighty five million dollars today,
Speaker 2: and was nominated for six Oscars. The Pianist was an
Speaker 2: even bigger success. It was based on the true story
Speaker 2: of composer Vladislaw Spielmann's internment in a Nazi concentration camp.
Speaker 2: It grossed one hundred and twenty million dollars worldwide and
Speaker 2: was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Actor for its
Speaker 2: star Adrian Brody and Best Director for Polanski. Fearing arrest
Speaker 2: if he returned to the United States, Polanski did not
Speaker 2: attend the ceremony. Brody won the Best Actor award and
Speaker 2: as evidence that Hollywood's disapproval of Roman was waning. When
Speaker 2: it was announced that he had won, he received a
Speaker 2: standing ovation in absentia.
Speaker 3: Over the next three years, support for Polansky and Hollywood grew.
Speaker 3: It reached its peak in September two thousand and nine
Speaker 3: when Roman flew into Switzerland to attend the Zurich Film Festival,
Speaker 3: where he was to receive a Lifetime Achievement award.
Speaker 2: And he was detained at immigration because American authorities made
Speaker 2: a provisional request for his arrest. He spent sixty seven
Speaker 2: days in a Zurich detention center while he raised a
Speaker 2: four point five million dollars bond. Because he'd been born
Speaker 2: in Paris, Polanski was protected from extradition as long as
Speaker 2: he remained in France. Unlike France, Switzerland had an extradition
Speaker 2: treaty with the United States. After putting up his home
Speaker 2: in Paris as a guarantee. He was released into house
Speaker 2: arrest at his home in the ski resort of Gestad.
Speaker 2: The film communities in Europe and in Hollywood reacted to
Speaker 2: Roman's arrests us with an outpouring of support. Dozens of actors, directors,
Speaker 2: and producers signed a petition calling for Polanski's release. Here's
Speaker 2: a list of a few of them. David Lynch, Martin Scorsese,
Speaker 2: Vim Venders, Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson, Adrian Brody, Jonathan dem Buck,
Speaker 2: Henry Michael Mann, Julian Schnabel, and Tilda Swinton. Deborah Winger.
Speaker 2: Then the Zurich Film Festival jury presidents said, we stand
Speaker 2: by and await his release and his next master work.
Speaker 2: We hope today that this latest order will be dropped.
Speaker 2: It is based on a three decade old case that
Speaker 2: is all but dead except for a minor technicality. Sigourney
Speaker 2: Weaver told CNN. He is sweet and very strong, and
Speaker 2: is very, very demanding in the tradition of an alteur.
Speaker 2: Among Polanski's advocates in two thousand and nine were men
Speaker 2: who were subjects of abuse allegations themselves. Woody Allen, who
Speaker 2: was accused of abusing his daughter in nineteen nine two,
Speaker 2: Disgrace director Brett Ratner, who, as Variety reported in November
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct by
Speaker 2: six women, and Harvey Weinstein, whose abuses made Hollywood a
Speaker 2: focus of the me too movement. In twenty seventeen, in
Speaker 2: a statement to CNN, Weinstein said, we are calling every
Speaker 2: filmmaker we can to help fix this terrible situation. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: Switzerland opted not to extradite Polanski and he was once
Speaker 2: again free to travel in Europe. Similarly, a court and
Speaker 2: Poland ruled it would be quote an obviously unlawful deprivation
Speaker 2: of liberty to extradite Polanski. The court had determined that
Speaker 2: the California justice system would not give him a fair trial.
Speaker 3: Now, Tracy, as you mentioned in October twenty seventeen, revelations
Speaker 3: about Harvey Weinstein's serial sexual abuses led to an outpouring
Speaker 3: of me two allegations against dozens of Hollywood power players. Before, during,
Speaker 3: and after that time. At least five women made allegations
Speaker 3: against Roman Polanski.
Speaker 2: And the first of these came seven years earlier, in
Speaker 2: twenty ten when British actress Charlotte Lewis accused Polanski of
Speaker 2: forcing himself on her in his apartment in Paris. The
Speaker 2: alleged abuse occurred in nineteen eighty three during an audition
Speaker 2: for the movie Pirates, when she was sixteen years old.
Speaker 2: The second allegation was made in August of twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: when a woman identifying herself as Robin M claimed she
Speaker 2: was sexually victimized at age sixteen by Polanski. At a
Speaker 2: news conference, she said, I'm speaking out now so Samantha
Speaker 2: Gaily and the world will know she is not the
Speaker 2: only minor Roman Polanski victimized. When Polanski heard about her accusation,
Speaker 2: he told his attorney, I don't know what this is about.
Speaker 2: What could this be. In October twenty seventeen, Ornte Langer,
Speaker 2: a former child model who appeared in Polanski's film titled What,
Speaker 2: that Polanski had raped her when she was fifteen years old.
Speaker 2: She said the alleged assaults occurred in nineteen seventy two
Speaker 2: during auditions for the film at Polanski's home in Gestad,
Speaker 2: and later while the movie was being filmed in Rome.
Speaker 2: Variety reported in December twenty seventeen. On another alleged assault
Speaker 2: that occurred in nineteen seventy five, California artist Marion Barnard
Speaker 2: claimed that Polanski assaulted her during a photoshoot at will
Speaker 2: Rogers State Beach when she was just ten years old.
Speaker 2: She claimed that she was posing nude on a fur
Speaker 2: coat for Polanski when he molested her. Through his attorney,
Speaker 2: Polanski said he did not know Maryanne Barnard. In November
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, Variety reported that the French newspaper Le Parisienne
Speaker 2: was investigating acclaim by photographer Valentine Monier that Polanski raped
Speaker 2: her in Geshtad, Switzerland, when she was eighteen.
Speaker 3: It seems like these cases have sort of all but
Speaker 3: gone dark, but there has been movement on some recently.
Speaker 2: Yes, there has, but it hasn't really made news. In
Speaker 2: September twenty twenty two, Charlotte Lewis sued Polanski for defamation.
Speaker 2: She claimed that he defamed her by calling her accusations
Speaker 2: and odious lie. Unless there's a settlement, the case will
Speaker 2: be tried in twenty twenty four. In November twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: Polanski's lawyers responded to a lawsuit from Robin M claiming
Speaker 2: the suit violated the Statute of limitations. It's unclear what
Speaker 2: the status of this case is at the moment. Cases
Speaker 2: related to the accusations by Renate Langer and Marianne Barnard
Speaker 2: were dismissed because they violated the statute of limitations. Valentine
Speaker 2: Monier did not file a complaint based on her allegations
Speaker 2: that Polanski raped her when she was eighteen.
Speaker 3: But it was Samantha Gaily who settled with Polanski for
Speaker 3: upwards of six hundred thousand dollars and under her married name.
Speaker 3: Samantha Geimer wrote a book a few years ago about
Speaker 3: the whole ordeal.
Speaker 2: Yes and it was titled The Girl Life in the
Speaker 2: Shadows of Roman Polanski and was published in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 2: when she was forty nine years old. After living with
Speaker 2: the scandal for thirty six years, she re emerged in
Speaker 2: public to publicize the book. In an interview with NPR,
Speaker 2: she described the lifelong ramifications of the sexual assault. It
Speaker 2: affected me dramatically, probably changed who I am as a person,
Speaker 2: changed the way my life went. But since it happened,
Speaker 2: it's hard to judge what might have been different if
Speaker 2: it didn't happen. But I was angry my poor mother,
Speaker 2: who felt horrible and guilty. She also said she received
Speaker 2: a letter from Polanski in two thousand and nine. It read,
Speaker 2: in part, I want you to know how sorry I
Speaker 2: am for having so affected your life. The fault was mine,
Speaker 2: not your mother's. I hope the pressure of the media
Speaker 2: has alleviated and that your family brings you much happiness.
Speaker 2: She said she was surprised to receive the note. She
Speaker 2: didn't need an apology, but it alleviated some of the
Speaker 2: pain and anger that her mother, her husband, and their
Speaker 2: family had been feeling. Samantha also summed up where she
Speaker 2: landed emotionally. After decades at the center of the media frenzy,
Speaker 2: Polanski and I have both been on the wrong end
Speaker 2: of the law, the publicity people's comments toward both of
Speaker 2: us that are just nasty and horrible. So we end
Speaker 2: up having a lot in common, which is strange, but
Speaker 2: that's true. That's how this has worked out.
Speaker 3: In the seven years since the Me Too movement began,
Speaker 3: many of the celebrities who'd advocated dropping the charges against
Speaker 3: Polanski have had a chance to rethink their support.
Speaker 2: Yes and one famous director who walked back his support
Speaker 2: was Quentin Tarantino. On the Howard Stern radio show in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, he said Polanski didn't rape a
Speaker 2: thirteen year old, it was statutory rape. That's not quite
Speaker 2: the same thing. He had sex with a minor, all right,
Speaker 2: that's not rape to me. When you use the word rape,
Speaker 2: you're talking about violent, throwing them down. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: in a statement released to Indie Wire, Tarantino apologized to
Speaker 2: Samantha Geimer for his quote, ignorant beliefs and cavalier remarks.
Speaker 2: He also said, fifteen years later, I realized how wrong
Speaker 2: I was. Mis Geimer was raped by Roman Polanski. I
Speaker 2: incorrectly played devil's advocate in the debate for the sake
Speaker 2: of being provocative. I didn't take Miss Geimer's feelings into consideration,
Speaker 2: and for that I'm truly sorry. So mis Geimer, I
Speaker 2: was ignorant, and insensitive and above all incorrect. Kate Winslet
Speaker 2: voiced her support for Polanski in September twenty seventeen, a
Speaker 2: month before the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke. In an interview
Speaker 2: with The New York Daily News, she said, having thought
Speaker 2: it all through, you put it to one side and
Speaker 2: just work with the person. Woody Allen is an incredible director,
Speaker 2: so was Roman Polanski. I had an extraordinary working experience
Speaker 2: with both of those men, and that's the truth. She
Speaker 2: saw things differently. Three years later, in September twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: she was quoted in Variety, It's like, what the fuck
Speaker 2: was I doing working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski.
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable to me now how those men were held
Speaker 2: in such high regard so widely in the film industry
Speaker 2: for as long as they were. It's fucking disgraceful. I
Speaker 2: have to take responsibility for the fact that I worked
Speaker 2: with them both, she said, I can't turn back the clock.
Speaker 2: I'm grappling with those regrets. But what do we have
Speaker 2: if we aren't able to just be fucking truthful.
Speaker 1: About all of it.
Speaker 2: So, Matt, let's talk about the sea change in opinion
Speaker 2: about Polanski from two thousand and nine to today. And
Speaker 2: it was in two thousand and nine that so many
Speaker 2: important people signed the petition to have the charges against
Speaker 2: him dropped. Do you think their reevaluation was enough?
Speaker 3: Matt, I don't know. I mean, it's funny recapping everything
Speaker 3: that's happened over the course of his life, and just
Speaker 3: the sort of very confusing mixed signals back and forth
Speaker 3: over these egregious charges. I think there are a couple
Speaker 3: of things that are interesting. First, I think was in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty when the Film Academy expelled him formally. That
Speaker 3: was a major message to everyone that whether or not
Speaker 3: you supported him then or now, that Hollywood will not
Speaker 3: stand for this level of behavior. And what's really fitting
Speaker 3: to me in a sense of justice, although I'm sure
Speaker 3: nowhere near what some of these accusers would have hoped for,
Speaker 3: is the erosion of Planski's legacy. I think that we'll
Speaker 3: all remember Rosemary's Baby as Amya Farah film in Chinatown
Speaker 3: as one of Jack Nicholson's best, But he himself, I
Speaker 3: don't think has any place in the also time here exactly.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you Matt for all of your insights today.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I love being here.
Speaker 2: Thanks to Matt Donnelly, Variety Senior Entertainment and Media writer,
Speaker 2: for joining us. We'll be back next time with another
Speaker 2: episode in the six part series The Secret History of
Speaker 2: the Casting Couch from Variety Confidential. This has been disgraced
Speaker 2: Genius Roman Polant for Variety and iHeart Podcasts. I'm Tracy Patton.
Speaker 2: Variety Confidential is a production of Variety Content Studio and
Speaker 2: iHeart Podcasts. It was produced by Sidney Kramer, John Ponder,
Speaker 2: and Tracy Patten and written by John Ponder and Tracy Patton,
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Speaker 2: and mixer Charles Carroll