Roman Polanski, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who remains a U.S. fugitive after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, said 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 Newsweek Polska in an interview given just days before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stripped him of his nearly 50-year membership, citing the 1977 child-sex case. The interview was published this week.
He said everyone is trying to sign up to #MeToo "chiefly out of fear" and compared it to North Korea's public mourning for its leaders that is so intensive that "you can't stop laughing." He did not explain further.
A Paris-born Holocaust survivor, Polanski won an Academy Award for directing "The Pianist" in 2003.
© Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.