French writer/director/actress Maïwenn, born Maïwenn Lo Besco, has admitted to assaulting a journalist during an ongoing lawsuit.
The director and star of “Jeanne du Barry” is the subject of a legal action brought by Edwy Plenel, editor-in-chief of Mediapart magazine. Plenel claimed Maïwenn pulled his hair and spat in his face as he dined at a Paris restaurant. The reporter filed a police report on March 7 and said the meeting took place in late February.
In a new live television interview on the late night talk show ‘Quotidien’, Maïwenn addressed the assault allegations.
“Can you confirm? Can you say more? host Yann Barthès asked the director (via Expiration).
“Can I confirm that I assaulted him or received a complaint?” Maïwenn replied before clarifying: “I have not received a complaint. I heard about it from the press.”
Barthès asked: “And you attacked him?”
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Maïwenn said, “Yes,” before evading details. “Nice try, but it’s not the time for me to talk about it. I’ll talk about it when the time is right. I am very anxious about the launch of my film,” she concluded.
Maïwenn’s “Jeanne du Barry” opens the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Controversial actor Johnny Depp plays Louis XV, with Maïwenn playing his titular lover. He said he didn’t “hesitate” to cast Depp in the role despite allegations of domestic violence shared by ex-wife Amber Heard.
“Very quickly I said, he lost the first race, he won the second,” explained Maïwenn. “We could say it was one person’s word against another. I didn’t feel I had the right to judge.”
She admitted she didn’t want to sound like a “groupie” when she first met with Depp to discuss the film ahead of its casting.
“I sat down for five minutes beforehand to make sure I didn’t come in with a ‘groupie’ head but rather a director’s head, to really see if I could see him in the role,” she shared. “I only spoke French… He was great in the film. He was really invested. He speaks French very well and knows all the French history.”
Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux backed ‘Jeanne du Barry’ as the film of the opening night, saying in April: ‘I don’t see Maïwenn’s film at all as a controversial choice, because if Johnny Depp had been banned from working it would have been different, but it’s not. We only know one thing, it’s the justice system and I think he won the lawsuit. But the film is not about Johnny Depp.
