Polanski abused me at 16, says British actress
'Scarred': Charlotte Lewis now. She claims Polanski used classic casting-couch pressure to persuade her to spend the night with him
A British actress who claims she was sexually abused by Roman Polanski yesterday accused Hollywood of giving the wrong message to paedophiles.
Charlotte Lewis, 42, said she was only 16 when the film director ‘forced himself’ on her in Paris while she was auditioning for a movie role in 1983.
She spoke out as Woody Allen became the latest Hollywood figure to support Polanski, who is under house arrest in Switzerland fighting extradition to the U.S. over a 1977 child sex case.
Allen was himself at the centre of a furore in 1992 after he began sleeping with his partner Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, then 22.
Miss Lewis, who played Samantha in the TV series Grange Hill, said: ‘I’ve been so angry with some of the people in Hollywood who have spoken out in support of Polanski.
'Hollywood is giving the wrong message to paedophiles.’
She said Polanski invited her to stay at his apartment in Paris while she auditioned for a part in his film Pirates.
‘He sexually abused me and manipulated me in the worst way,’ she claimed. ‘He forced himself upon me. He took advantage of me and I have lived with the effects of his behaviour ever since. He has scarred me.’
Last week she gave a statement to prosecutors in Los Angeles.
It is unclear whether fresh charges will be brought against the 76-year-old director.
Miss Lewis claimed Polanski used classic casting-couch pressure to persuade her to spend the night with him.
She said that after plying her with Moet and Chandon champagne: ‘He just said very coldly, “If you’re not a big enough girl to have sex with me, you’re not big enough to do the screen test”. I saw this opportunity slipping away.’
Miss Lewis got the part and Pirates launched her Hollywood career.
She quit acting after her career foundered and now lives in Hampstead, north London, with her five-year-old son.
Miss Lewis said she did not go to police at the time of the alleged abuse because she was scared and ashamed.
She said her motive in speaking out now was justice, not money.
Sex abuse claims: Miss Lewis and Polanski in Cannes in 1986
Polanski is fighting extradition to the U.S. for sentencing after admitting having unlawful sex with Samantha Geimer in 1977 when she was 13.
He fled the country while on bail after a plea deal and has not returned since.
On Saturday fellow director Woody Allen defended Polanski, criticising those who would be ‘happy if they could execute him in a firing squad’.
Allen, 74, said: ‘Enough is enough. It happened many years ago. He has suffered.
'He’s an artist, he’s a nice person. He did something wrong and he paid for it.’
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