Actress accuses ‘Fifth Element’ director of rape
POLICE are investigating accusations that French film director Luc Besson drugged and raped an actress in a Paris hotel.
It is the latest of a string of sexual assault claims to shake the cinema industry in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
News of the allegations broke during the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, where an Italian actress who says she was raped by Mr Weinstein made an emotional speech and warned more male cinema figures would be held to account.
Mr Besson (59), director of ‘The Big Blue’, ‘Lucy’ and ‘The Fifth Element’, has categorically denied the rape claims.
His accuser, a 27-year-old French actress whose name has not been made public, made the complaint to police on Friday in Paris. The alleged assault took place the night before at the exclusive Bristol hotel in the French capital, according to judicial sources.
She told them she had been in a relationship with Mr Besson, who is currently out of the country and has not been questioned by police, for around two years but said she felt pressured into sexual relations with him for professional reasons.
Europe 1 radio, which broke the story, said the alleged victim told police how she had “drunk a cup of tea, then felt unwell and lost consciousness”, and when she came round she remembered being sexually assaulted.
Thierry Marembert, a lawyer acting for Mr Besson, said the claims were “fantasist accusations” and the actress was someone the director knew but “towards whom he has never behaved inappropriately”.
Mr Besson is among France’s most famous filmmakers, having written, directed or produced nearly 100 films, including the three ‘Taken’ movies, ‘Nikita’ and ‘Leon’.
His second wife, actress Maiwenn, whom he met when she was 15 and he twice her age, has said the 1994 film ‘Leon’, which centres on a 13-yearold girl (played by Natalie Portman in her screen debut) and her relationship with a much older man, was based on Mr Besson’s relations with her.