Actress Brigitte Bardot attacked the #MeToo movement by calling it “hypocritical and ridiculous” and suggesting that some of the allegations are from women who want publicity.
In an interview with the French magazine Paris Match, translated by France 24, the 83-year-old French film icon said, “The vast majority are being hypocritical and ridiculous.” Bardot, who became a worldwide sex symbol for the film And God Created Woman released in the year 1956, said, “Lots of actresses try to play the tease with producers to get a role. And then, so we will talk about them, they say they were harassed. I was never the victim of sexual harassment. And I found it charming when men told me that I was beautiful or I had a nice little backside.”
This is not the first time that Bardot has shared a controversial comment and opinion. In the past, the actress has been fined five times for provoking discrimination and racial hatred against Islam and Muslims communities in France.
In the past few months, many actresses have come forward and shared their stories about the unequal power dynamic in the film industry. Some have even shared their stories about the meetings with producers that amounted to more or less an aggressive flirting session.
Bardot’s comments came in soon after another French actress, Catherine Deneuve was pilloried for criticising the #MeToo movement over a week ago. Deneuve along with other 100 prominent French women signed up an open letter. The latter, published in Le Monde, suggested that the #MeToo movement had become “puritanical” and a “witch hunt” against men.
After Deneuve received a furious global backlash, she wrote an apology letter to Liberation newspaper. In the letter, she wrote, “I fraternally salute all the victims of odious acts that may have felt aggrieved by this letter published in Le Monde. It is to them and them alone that I apologize.”
