Filmmaker Roman Polanski calls #MeToo “collective hysteria”

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski says 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 a case in 1977 in which he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor. 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.