In an article published on Saturday, August 28, 2021, The Charente Libre pointed the finger Karin Viard’s behavior in the middle of the Angoulême CGR cinema. The actress allegedly spanked a journalist who preceded her in the cinema lobby. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist those beautiful buttocks”, she would have exclaimed after having sexually assaulted him. She would even be “returned to the charge”, according to La Charente Libre, by asking the journalist if she “could put it back.” The regional daily does not specify how the journalist in question reacted.
Actress Karin Viard was present at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival to present the film. The origin of the world, directed by Laurent Lafitte. We follow Jean-Louis, played by Laurent Lafitte himself, who from one day to the next no longer feels his heart beating. His wife, played by Karin Viard, finds no explanation for this phenomenon and advises him to consult his life coach. Once the appointment is made, this strange guru tells him that only a photograph of his mother’s sex can solve his problem. Strange pitch, you will tell us, just like the film where, on several occasions, the poor mother of the main character is manhandled. It remains to be hoped that this spanking of Karin Viard has nothing to do with the promotion of this feature film which is scheduled for release on September 15, 2021. Nor with that of the film Fantasies, currently showing.
When Karin Viard defended the #Metoo movement
If this behavior is particularly strange, it is because we remember that Karin Viard regularly spoke on the #Metoo movement. In an interview with RTL in 2018, for example, she welcomed the #Metoo phenomenon and the massive voice of women victims of sexual violence. “Now you can say, ‘you put your hand to my ass in the subway, you can be condemned for that.’ ” she explained. She also hoped that the #Metoo movement could bring more parities in the world of cinema, in front of, but also behind the camera.
Ditto in 2017, when the actress confided in the editorial staff of aufeminin, on the occasion of the film’s release Jealous. She had shared street harassment and sexual assault she suffered in the past, especially when she moved to Paris. “Freeing the voice of women, it allows women who have been the victims of this to say ‘I have no reason to accept this, none.'” Karin Viard’s behavior at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival is therefore indeed contradictory, in addition to being frankly problematic.