Actress Emmanuelle Seigner, wife of director Roman Polanski, comes to his defense in a book that has just been published, a burned life. The actress, who has shared her life since 1985 and married him in 1989, recounts her life since Roman Polanski’s arrest in Zurich in 2009 in the context of a case dating back to 1977.
“What interested me in this book was above all the truth,” says Emmanuelle Seigner on the set of BFMTV. “We are at a time when the truth no longer matters. I really wanted the public, his public, mine, to have access to this truth. I also did it for my family, for my children.”
The actress, who worked for five years on her text, considers it “important to say things”: “The truth is important. Everything I say in this book is true. I fight for this truth.” And to add: “I had a very precise idea of what I wanted. I wanted to make a book that is somewhere between a newspaper and a legal thriller.”
Emmanuelle Seigner says she is more traumatized by Roman Polanski’s arrest in Zurich than by the César 2020 ceremony, where Adèle Haenel left the room after the filmmaker’s victory in the best director category. “During these ten months, I felt like in Alice in Wonderland when he falls into the well and never stops,” says Emmanuelle Seigner.
“There is the presumption of innocence”
In 2009, Roman Polanski was involved in the case of Samantha Geimer, a 13-year-old girl whom the director raped in 1977. Facts for which he pleaded guilty in the United States. “She has a 90-day sentence that she is serving. He is released after 42 days and the judge betrays her word. She is fleeing the United States. She is running from injustice. Even the prosecutor says today that she did well to leave. , insists Emmanuelle Seigner.
Samantha Greimer has also forgiven him, the actress insists: “The young woman has forgiven him. They exchange many emails. They have a very good relationship.” Emmanuelle Seigner has also posted one of her emails in her book. Since the Samantha Greimer affair, a dozen women, sometimes anonymously, have accused the filmmaker of rape or sexual assault. Most of the facts are now prescribed.
A lawsuit for defamation has been ordered in Paris against Roman Polanski after a complaint by actress Charlotte Lewis for statements in which the filmmaker questioned the veracity of the sexual abuse he accuses him of. “This is good news,” says Emmanuelle Seigner. “There will be tests.” She rejects the other charges: “There is a presumption of innocence.” According to the actress, who married Roman Polanski in 1989, the director is nothing like a sexual predator:
“Do you really think I would live 37 years with a violent man? He really is a tender, gentle man. He has no violence in him. Then it is true that when I met him in 1985 I was extremely in love. For me, it was not always easy. I was young. I was 18 years old. There were so many girls after him. But he never gave me a reason to be jealous. That’s what I write in my book.”
Blacklisted?
Emmanuelle Seigner, who supports the #MeToo phenomenon, which she finds “formidable”, believes that “you have to be careful with excesses”: “My speech is free and I would like us to hear it too”, she indicates, specifying that the Time has changed since the events imputed to Roman Polanski: “It was a much more permissive time. He was wrong, he paid. I’m not here to absolve him. I’m not minimizing it. I’m telling the facts.” .”
And the actress continues: “I know there are a lot of people who don’t want to hear it, but [c’était] a time when Lolita was truly praised. I am not saying that this era should be applauded. But it was. I myself was a very young model, 14-15 years old. I saw photographers sleeping with very young girls. Society tolerated it. I’m not saying it’s good.”
Emmanuelle Seigner claims to now be on the “blacklist” of the film industry. She has just shot a movie in New York. And Roman Polanski has just made a new movie, a comedy, with Italian money. “It is easier [de travailler] abroad”, regrets the actress, who says she does not regret marrying the director:
“I don’t blame anyone. I made my decision. If I can blame anyone, it can only be myself. I loved this man. I married him. No, I don’t regret it, because he is a wonderful man, a wonderful father, a wonderful husband. I’m so happy I made this decision. Then there were some risks. And I took them.”
Source: BFM TV
