French actress who protested against Roman Polanski announces she is ‘striking’

A French actress has revealed she is ‘on strike’ because of the French film industry’s complacency towards the #MeToo movement.

Two-time César Award–winning French actor Adèle Haenel, who rose to fame thanks to her role in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, has revealed she’s refused to work for two years in an open letter published this week in the French TV magazine Telerama. 

The actress previously made headlines after she stormed out of France’s most prestigious awards ceremony in 2020 when controversial director Roman Polanski got the Best Director for his movie An Officer and a Spy. 

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Haenel also denounced alleged sexual harassment by another French director, Christophe Ruggia, in the early 2000s when she was aged 12 to 15 and he was between 35 and 38-years-old. 

Now speaking ahead of the Cannes Festival, which is due to open in the South of France next week, Haenel, who has not worked on a project since 2021, has called out the French movie industry for its ‘generalised complacency towards sexual assaulters.’ 

Haenel, whose career was on the up until her 2020 award ceremony walk out, has been MIA from the screen, and has now revealed that her absence has been intentional. 

She said she couldn’t work in the industry anymore, claiming it’s worked ‘hand-in-hand’ to save reputations of directors and actors accused of sexual misconduct, including Polanski and actor Gerard Depardieu, who all deny the claims made against them. 

In the extraordinary open letter, the actress accused the industry of pushing bourgeois ideas and silencing dissenting voices of minorities, saying that to keep making this system looking desirable’ would be ‘criminal.’ 

The actress also accused the French movie industry of being racist and chastised it for its silence in the wake of the climate change crisis, which she said should be addressed as a matter of urgency. 

It is not the first time the actress has been vocal about her political beliefs, especially when it comes to sexual assault. 

In 2020, she stormed out the Cesars award ceremony, the French equivalent of the BAFTAs, when Roman Polanski was awarded Best Director. 

At the time, she told the New York Times about the ceremony: ‘Distinguishing Polanski is spitting in the face of all victims. It means raping women isn’t that bad.’

Polanski is still wanted in the United States decades after he was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977. He pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor but fled the country on the eve of sentencing.

Last year, a woman came forward to accuse Polanski of raping her in 1975 in his Swiss chalet when she was 18. Polanski denied it, and the allegations are too old for an investigation.

But the accusation put the director under fresh scrutiny in France, where he has long been revered as one of the country’s premier filmmakers despite the outstanding rape charge in the U.S. Other accusations have also emerged.

Actress Adele Haenel, who denounced alleged sexual assault by another French director in the early 2000s when she was 15 in 2019, got up and walked out of the prestigious Cesars ceremony in 2020 when Roman Polanski received the Best Director award, pictured 

Polanski, pictured, is still wanted in the United States decades after he was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977

Ms Haenel pictured before she stormed out of the awards ceremony at Salle Pleyel, Paris, in 2019

In 2019 Haenel claimed that Christophe Ruggia repeatedly sexually harassed her while they worked on the 2002 film The Devils, when she was aged between 12 and 15 and Ruggia was between 35 and 38.

Speaking through his lawyers, Ruggia ‘categorically’ denied the allegations at the time. 

Haenel made the claims in an interview with French website Mediapart.  

She told the media organisation that the director’s behaviour amounted to ‘paedophilia’ and she had been regularly subjected to ‘forced kisses on the neck’ and unwanted physical contact while visiting him during filming. 

She said: ‘It was a man of nearly 40 who every week got himself into a room with a young girl who was between aged 12 and 15 and tried to touch her up. There was no ambiguity in the situation. It wasn’t romantic, it was pure pressure.’

The actor added that the incidents would often take place at his apartment and she would be left ‘stuck to the sofa’ and ‘frozen’ in his presence.

The 30-year-old said she decided to speak out after hearing that Ruggia is allegedly planning a new film that will feature characters with the same names as the ones Haenel and her co-star had in The Devils.

Watching the controversial Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland, which aired earlier that year had also compelled her to come forward, she said.

The Leaving Neverland documentary saw two alleged victims of the late pop star tell in graphic detail how the ‘King of Pop’ had sexually abused them over several years.

Fellow French actor Marion Cottilard wrote on Instagram in support of Haelen, writing: ‘Adèle, your courage is a gift of unparalleled generosity for women and men, for young actresses and actors, for all the damaged beings who know now thanks to you that they do not have to suffer this violence.

And for those who have suffered it, that they can speak, they will be listened to and heard.’