POLAND
Associated Press
May 9, 2018
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski says the #MeToo movement that sheds light on sexual misconduct of powerful men in Hollywood is “collective hysteria” and “total hypocrisy.”
Polanski made the comment to the Polish edition of Newsweek in a recent interview given just days before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stripped him of his nearly 50-year membership, citing a case in 1977 in which he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor.
The interview was published this week and the footnote said it was done before the May 3 Academy decision.
In his interview Polanski said that to him, #MeToo is a “collective hysteria of the kind that sometimes happens in the society.”
“Everyone is trying to sign up, chiefly out of fear,” he said, comparing it to North Korea’s public mourning for its leaders when everyone cries so much that “you can’t help laughing.”
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