Roman Polanski poses for smiling picture with rape sufferer Samantha Geimer
Disgraced movie director Roman Polanski posed for a smiling picture with Samantha Geimer — greater than 45 years after he drugged and raped her when she was simply 13.
A grinning Geimer, now 60, draped her left arm across the gray-haired director in what’s believed to be their first reunion because the “Chinatown” filmmaker abused her in 1977. Polanski was 43 years outdated on the time.
It’s unclear precisely when the snap was taken however the forgiving sufferer shared the image to her personal Instagram account simply after the publication of her interview with France’s Le Point magazine — during which she insisted the 89-year-old had “paid his debt to society.”
Polanski’s spouse, actress Emmanuelle Seigner, who interviewed Geimer for the French journal, made the pic public on her personal web page.
“Thanks Samantha,” Seigner wrote with a coronary heart emoji.
She credited the picture to Geimer’s husband, David, whereas tagging the journal that ran their interview.
Geimer insisted that the 1977 rape — during which she was first fed champagne and Quaaludes — was “by no means a giant downside.”
“Let me be very clear: what occurred with Polanski was by no means a giant downside for me,” Geimer instructed Seigner of the March 1 assault, which occurred throughout a photograph shoot at Jack Nicholson’s home.
“I didn’t even realize it was unlawful, that somebody may very well be arrested for it. I used to be tremendous, I’m nonetheless tremendous,” she maintained, regardless of beforehand suing him for intentional infliction of emotional misery for the assault.
“The truth that we’ve made this [a big deal] weighs on me terribly,” she mentioned, in response to a translation by IndieWire.
“To should continuously repeat that it wasn’t a giant deal, it’s a horrible burden.”
Polanski pleaded responsible to statutory rape for illegal intercourse with a minor — however fled the US earlier than sentencing to keep away from jail.
He was detained by Swiss police in 2009 and spent 10 months behind bars because the US made a doomed try and get him extradited.
“Everybody ought to know by now that Roman has served his sentence,” Geimer instructed the director’s spouse.
“From my facet, no one needed him to go to jail, however he did and it was sufficient. He paid his debt to society. There, finish of story,” she mentioned.
“Anybody who thinks that he deserves to be in jail is incorrect. It isn’t the case right this moment and it wasn’t the case yesterday.”