‘It was never a big deal’, Roman Polanski’s 13-year-old rape victim tells director’s wife

The woman who was drugged and raped by Roman Polanski when she was just 13 has told the film director’s wife that she never considered it a “big deal”.

Interviewed by Emmanuelle Seigner in French magazine Le Point, Samantha Geimer, now 60, said the incident never had lasting effects on her.

“I was fine, I’m still fine,” Ms Geimer said in a wide-ranging interview in which she hit out at the MeToo movement.

The 1977 attack on Ms Geimer was one of the biggest scandals to rock Hollywood in decades.

Polanski, then 43, had invited the teenager to carry out a photoshoot at Jack Nicholson’s house for Vogue Magazine, which he was guest editing.

He plied Ms Geimer with champagne and the popular party drug Quaalude, before pouncing on her.

Now 46 years after the attack, Ms Geimer played down its impact on her.

“Let me be very clear: what happened with Polanski was never a big problem for me,” she said.

“I didn’t even know it was illegal, that someone could be arrested for it. I was fine, I’m still fine. The fact that we’ve made this a big deal weighs on me terribly.”

Following the attack, Polanski was arrested and served only 42 days in jail as a result of a plea deal in which the prosecution dropped charges of rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd act upon a child and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor.

In 1978, the Polish-born Oscar-winning film director fled to France from the US hours before he was due to be sentenced.

Now 89, he remains a fugitive, carefully avoiding countries with which the US has an extradition treaty. Polanski has faced other allegations of sexual assault, which he denies.

Ms Geimer urged the US to drop the charges.

“People pretend to act in the name of justice, or because they support me, but it’s the antithesis of what I want and of all I say that I want,” she said.

“Everyone should know by now that Roman has served his sentence. Which was… long, if you want my opinion. From my side, nobody wanted him to go to jail, but he did and it was enough. He paid his debt to society. There, end of story.

“He did everything that was asked of him until the situation went berserk he had no other choice but to flee. Anyone who thinks that he deserves to be in prison is wrong. It isn’t the case today and it wasn’t the case yesterday.”

Ms Geimer said she only felt she was a victim when she was hounded by the press and had to face numerous court appearances.

“If someone had something to say about Roman, about any mistreatment, 1977 would have been a really good year to help me,” she added.

“Because with my family, we couldn’t even leave our house anymore! Everyone was attacking us.

“No one came to stand by my side and say: ‘Hey, you know what? I think she’s telling the truth because something similar happened to me.’

“It’s not like the story was private, it was in newspapers around the world!

“But no, no one, not one of the women who today claim to have had a problem with Roman took the trouble to contact me.”

During their conversation, Polanski’s wife Ms Seigner said that sexual attitudes were different in the late 1970s.

“I remember the time when I was starting to work – I became a model at 14-years-old,” she said.

“All the girls, the models, slept with the photographers and I was no exception. But sex was something normal, a natural aspect of life. There wasn’t all this drama, all this darkness surrounding sex.”

Ms Geimer agreed and appeared to hit out at the MeToo movement.

“It’s sad for women but especially young women.

“Imagine reaching adulthood in this era, it seems appalling to me. I don’t see what’s so feminist about claiming victimhood.

“Today, women’s pain is valued, and there’s a whole industry that exploits suffering. Those who participate in it don’t know what they’re stepping into.”

She also hit out at Gloria Allred, the feminist lawyer, who has taken up the cases of women who have complained of sexual assault.

Ms Allred, she said, “just diminishes women to exploit their pain, I’m sorry but that is no defence”.

Responding to Ms Geimer, Ms Allred told The Telegraph: “I have represented and continue to represent many victims of child sexual abuse both in civil lawsuits and in criminal cases against powerful men including two who have made allegations to law enforcement against Roman Polanski.

“Child sexual abuse is ‘a big problem’ for all of the victims I represent.

“Ms Geimer’s attack on me will not deter me or my clients. I will continue to advocate that Roman Polanski should be returned to the United States to face sentencing.

“He should not be treated as an acclaimed director. Instead, he should be known as a man who is a fugitive from justice, who fled the United States, because he is not willing to face a judge who will sentence him for sexually victimising a child.

Ms Seigner is Polanski’s third wife. His first marriage to actress Barbara Kwiatkowska ended in divorce in 1962 after three years. His second wife Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Charles Manson cult in 1969. He married Ms Seigner after she was chosen to star in Polanski’s thriller Frantic.

Ms Geimer wrote her own memoir in 2013 – The Girl: A life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski. She said during the promotion for the book that her three sons’ attitude to the case encouraged her to speak out.

Initially, she recalled, she and her family were hounded by the media and described as gold diggers.

“You’ll notice the culture has shifted so that everything has swung the other way and now it’s Roman the Monster,” she told The Guardian.

Despite being a fugitive from the US and unable to work in Hollywood, Polanski’s career continued to flourish.

In 1979 he directed Tess, which was dedicated to the memory of Tate. The film won awards for best picture and best director in France. It also received three Oscars.

Two years later, he directed and co-starred as Mozart in stage productions of Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus.

In 1988 he made Frantic, a thriller starring Harrison Ford, where he met Ms Seigner.

His directing career continued in the 1990s with a series of films including Bitter Moon in 1992 and Fearless Vampire Killers in 1997.

The following year he was elected a member of France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts.

In 2002 he directed The Pianist, based on the autobiography of the Polish-Jewish musician Wladyslaw Sziplman. Widely acclaimed, it won awards on both sides of the Atlantic, including an Oscar for Best Picture.

His career continued to flourish with his 2019 film An Officer and a Spy, winning a César Award in France and the Grand Jury prize at the Venice Film Festival. The 2020 César Award sparked a backlash with several actresses walking out.