Polanski calls #Metoo movement ‘hysteria’

Oscar-winning film maker Roman Polanski has said the #Metoo movement, which sheds light on sexual misconduct of powerful men in Hollywood, is “collective hysteria” and “total hypocrisy”.

Mr 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 near 50-year membership, citing a case in 1977 in which he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor.

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”.

Paris-born Mr Polanski won an Academy Award for directing The Pianist in 2003.