Hot Press To Publish Interview With Samantha Geimer, Who Was Raped by Roman Polanski

In a world exclusive, Hot Press will tomorrow publish a major in-depth interview with Samantha Geimer – the woman who, at the age of just 13 years, was raped by the acclaimed film director Roman Polanski.

The interview was carried out by Hot Press Senior Editor, Jason O’Toole.

In it, Samantha Geimer talks honestly, and with great care and considerable sensitivity, about every aspect of what happened with Polanski. Some of what she has to say about the now 84-year-old film maker will surely surprise readers and give many pause for thought.

It is clear from the interview that Samantha takes a carefully nuanced view of the entire experience. While she is very critical of Roman Polanski, she is not in any way bitter.

Asked by Jason O’Toole has she forgiven Roman Polanski, she says that she has.

“Yes,” she answers, towards the end of a riveting interview. "It was a terrible thing to do. But it was a long time ago. We’ve all been through a lot. I know he never meant to hurt me or for any of this to happen. He was just a shitty person and did a shitty thing. But that was 40 years ago.”

She also rejects passionately the criticisms that were levelled at her mother at the time, for the fact that she had allowed Samantha to do the photo sessions with Roman Polanski unsupervised.

“She felt horrible and responsible to begin with,” she says. “It was really hard on her – more than on me, because they kept me away from the news. There was no internet.”

Asked if it had occurred to her mother that she should have supervised the photoshoots, she puts it firmly in context.

“She thinks that,” she says. “But it seemed so normal. He’s this really famous artist, director. It’s like a giant opportunity for me. She said, ‘Can I go?’ He said, ‘No. She’ll be more natural if you don’t’. Which is true. But it never crossed anybody’s mind that he would do anything inappropriate. If I had said, ‘He took pictures of me without my shirt’, there would’ve been no next shoot. So, maybe I should’ve done that (laughs).”

In the interview, Samantha also offers her views on a number of related Irish controversies and cases. She reveals that she supports repealing the 8th Amendment. She is asked what she would have done if the rape had resulted in pregnancy.

“There’s no way I was having a baby at 14," she states. "No. Not his. It’s 1977. It was your legal right that you could go to your doctor (to secure an abortion).”

The interview runs over six pages of the magazine and contains shots of Samantha from different stages of her life. But it is the interview itself and Samantha's open-ness and honesty, which makes it such a fascinating read.

“The first thing that strikes you is just how a ease Samantha seems to be with herself,” Hot Press editor Niall Stokes reflects. “She has no problem discussing an issue that has dominated her life for over 40 years now. She has no inhibitions talking about sex. She also reveals a really good sense of humour. Clearly, she has thought about the whole issue of rape, and of the abuse of power by people in the film industry, for a long time. And what she has to say is very challenging in a lot of respects."

“She in no way condones abuse, or rape apologists,” Jason O’Toole explains. "She dismisses the comments made by George Hook as stupid, and says that she thinks the Irish journalist Tom Humphries should have been given a longer sentence for raping an underage girl. In some ways, however, her views ruffle the consensus around the wider issues. All the moreso because of her status as a victim, what she has to say is worth hearing.”

In the interview, Samantha expresses a view in relation to Roman Polanski’s decision to abscond which might shock some. “He went home to France, which I would’ve done too in the circumstances,” she says. "I was relieved he left the country.”

She also talks about a wide range of related issues, including the effect of the trial on both her and her mother; how she put the experience behind her; the bizarre behaviour of the judge in the case; Dustin Hoffman; Woody Allen; the #MeToo movement; stripping Oscars from the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey; highly contentious comments made by Quentin Tarantino and Whoopi Goldberg on the Polanski rape – and lots more besides.

Throughout, she remains fiercely independent, as well as calm and sometimes humorous in her replies.

“I think this is a classic case of it being best to read the interview in full,” Niall Stokes says. “I suspect that is the only way to get a proper understanding of what she thinks – but also why she feels the way she does. Whether you agree with everything Samantha says or not, the interview is hugely thought-provoking."