Celebrities who defended Roman Polanski
https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/celebrities-who-defended-roman-polanski.4491629/
Mia Farrow: 'maybe Roman's judgement was off on this occasion', but he was 'hounded'
Shelley Winters: There was a 'witch-hunt involved ... Roman was persecuted because, being foreign, talented and opinionated, he was an easy mark.'
Catherine Deneuve: "a very young girl can look much older than she is, and that was the case here'
Jacqueline Bisset: 'a lot of these kids are really hip - they know exactly what they're doing',
Andy Warhol :"As I looked around at how young the girls were, all I could think about Roman Polanski, how the poor guy could make a mistake because these young girls could be as young or as old as they wanted to look."
Martin Scorsese on losing the Oscar for Roman:
‘I’m so happy right now. Of all the people in the world that I’d want to lose to, it’s Roman. You have to understand that Polanski’s films have influenced me as an artist all these years and his terrible political situation has been something we have all had to suffer through. We won because Roman won.’”
Johnny Depp:
“Roman is not a predator,” continuing, “He’s 75 or 76 years old. He has got two beautiful kids, he has got a wife that he has been with for a long, long time. He is not out on the street.” Why now? Obviously there is something going on somewhere. Somebody has made a deal with someone. Maybe there was a little money involved, but why now?”
Madonna
"if I'm president: Howard Stern would be kicked out of the country, and Roman Polanski welcomed back in."
Meryl Streep
"I am Really Sorry That He is In Jail"
Debra Tate (Sharon Tate's sister: Polanski) :
"There's rape and then there's rape," she said. "It was determined that Roman did not forcibly have sex with this woman. It was a consensual matter."
"I was under the impression that there was misconduct in the political genre itself and that based on that perhaps he could get a fair trial here," she said. "Since then, speaking with the district attorney's office, I agree that Roman could not necessarily be dealt with in a fair manner here in the US. I think that this matter better be served in France."
Anjelica Huston:
“Well, see, it’s a story that could’ve happened 10 years before in England or France or Italy or Spain or Portugal, and no one would’ve heard anything about it. And that’s how these guys enjoy their time.
“It was a whole playboy movement in France when I was a young girl, 15, 16 years old, doing my first collections. You would go to Régine or Castel in Paris, and the older guys would all hit on you. Any club you cared to mention in Europe. It was de rigueur for most of those guys like Roman who had grown up with the European sensibility.”
"My opinion is: He’s paid his price, and at the time that it happened, it was kind of unprecedented. This was not an unusual situation.”
Sigourney Weaver:
“I have to say, looking back, and I wasn’t really in Hollywood , but things that I would hear, it was a much different time but all I’m saying is it stands out more now than it did at the time because people were desperate to be in movies and I think it’s unimaginable now for a mother to drop off a thirteen-year-old with someone like Roman,”
“Death and the Maiden” was probably a therapeutic experience for the filmmaker. “The story we were telling was a very personal story. He had been the accused, he had been the victim in Poland and he been the absolutely helpless husband. So, I felt that a lot of what his feelings about this issue were going right into this film, [‘Death and the Maiden’],” she said.
Weaver continued, “He’s changed his life. He’s doing this film about the Dreyfus affair, a very important story to tell. Apparently he’s getting some push back about that. It’s tricky but I learned a lot from Roman…"
The ‘Alien’ actress was asked if she’d work with the controversial filmmaker in the future. “Yes, I think I would. To be quite honest I think I would. He’s now happily married; he has two children. I’m sure that he and the children have had some interesting conversations about it. He pled guilty. Does he regret it? I’m sure he does,” she says.
Quentin Tarantino:
“I don’t believe it’s rape, not at 13, not for these 13-year-old party girls,” said Tarantino. “He had sex with a minor, that’s not rape. To me when you use the word rape you are talking about violent, throwing down, it’s one of the most violent crimes in the world. Throwing the word rape around is like throwing the world racist around. It doesn’t apply to everything.”
“She was trying to take care of her mom who is pissed off at her,” said Tarantino. “Her mom is now on her, now she has to say he did this, he did that. Now that she’s an adult she has a whole different story.”