Roman Polanski Opens Up About His ’33 Years Of Regret’
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Roman Polanski on Sex Case: “Regretted it for 33 Years”
Last week (end02Oct11) the moviemaker offered an apology to Samantha Geimer, who he slept with at a party at actor Jack Nicholson’s Hollywood home when she was under age.
Polanski, who fled to America in 1978 and skipped sentencing after he was convicted of unlawful sex with a minor, said in documentary Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir, “She is a double victim: my victim and a victim of the press.”
The Rosemary’s Baby director was arrested two years ago (09) on his way to the Zurich Film Festival in Switzerland, and after fighting extradition to the U.S., he was eventually freed last year (10) following several months custody and house arrest at his Swiss chalet.
Now Polanski has revealed the impact his actions have had on his life, telling Swiss television channel Tsr, “I have regretted it for 33 years, of course I regret it.”
The filmmaker also thanked Swiss officials for having the “respect” to refuse to extradite him.
Polanski reveals 33 years of regret
“Your nation possesses values that are disappearing in the rest of the world,” Polanski said. Polanski also recalled the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate in 1969 and his childhood in a Polish ghetto during World War II. “I am used to death a little bit like surgeons are used to seeing a stomach cut open,” Polanski said. The interview is set to air next Sunday.
‘I’ve had 33 years of regret,’ says Roman Polanski who suffered a ‘Strauss-Kahn-like impulse’ before sexually assaulting teen
Roman Polanski has confessed to having ’33 years of regret’ for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
The Oscar-winning director has never formally apologised for plying teenager Samantha Geimer with drugs and champagne before having sex with her at a photo shoot in 1977.
But in an interview with Swiss TV station TSR, he agreed he had suffered a ‘Strauss-Kahn-like impulse’ that had turned his life upside down.
Roman Polanski, right, said ‘of course’ he regretted plying then teen Samantha Geimer, left, with drugs and drink before sexually assaulting her in 1977
The shamed former IMF chief was recently freed from charges of trying to rape a New York hotel maid, and faces more attempted rape allegations in Paris.
Polanski was asked by the interviewer: ‘How do you feel about this impulsive moment similar to Dominique Strauss-Kahn back in 1977?’
The 78-year-old filmmaker replied: ‘That’s it. I have regretted it for 33 years. Of course I regret it.’
Polanski, left, spent 42 days behind bars after the attack at his friend Jack Nicholson’s, right, Los Angeles home
Similar: Polanski agreed he suffered a ‘Strauss-Khan-like impulse’ before the assault. The former IMF boss was recently freed from charges he raped a New York hotel maid
Polanski spent 42 days behind bars after the attack at his friend Jack Nicholson’s Los Angeles home before striking a plea deal to admit having unlawful intercourse with an underage girl.
But he fled the U.S. for Switzerland on the eve of his sentencing in 1978 amid fears the judge planned to go back on the plea deal and jail him for rape.
He was re-arrested on an international warrant in September 2009 at Zurich airport.
He spent 10 months in Swiss custody and under house arrest before convincing the authorities not to honour a U.S. extradition request and release him.
He said he would always be grateful to the Swiss for his liberty and for their ‘respect and tolerance’.
He added: ‘Your nation possesses values that are disappearing in the rest of the world.
‘I can not abide political correctness, which only hides the ugliness in all of us under a veneer.
‘We’re all like that, though with a few exceptions like me where the veneer is a bit thinner.’
Polanski said last month that he considered Ms Geimer to have been a ‘double victim’ of the decades old attack.
He said in Zurich where he was picking up a film award: ‘She is a double victim: my victim and a victim of the press.’
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