Brigitte Bardot has dismissed actresses who have made claims of sexual harassment in the #MeToo movement as “hypocritical”.
The French film icon, who is no stranger to controversy, claimed women tease producers to get a role and then invent harassment allegations to get attention.
Her remarks came after movie star Catherine Deneuve apologised to sex abuse victims after a backlash over her support of a letter signed by 100 fellow Frenchwomen saying accusations since the Harvey Weinstein scandal have gone too far.
Bardot was asked in an interview with French magazine Paris Match what she thought of actresses denouncing sexual harassment.
“In the vast majority of cases they are being hypocritical, ridiculous, uninteresting,” Bardot, 83, replied.
“There are many actresses who flirt with producers in order to get a role. Then, in order to be talked about, they will say they have been harassed. In reality, rather than benefiting them, it harms them.”
Bardot also said she was never herself a victim during her career, which began in the 1950s, and said she instead enjoyed some of the behaviour which many others would reject.
“Me, I was never the victim of sexual harassment and I found it charming when I was told that I was beautiful or I had a nice little backside. This kind of compliment is nice,” she said.
Bardot has been criticised in the past for supporting the French far-right party National Front and in 2004 was convicted of inciting racial hatred for her comments on French Muslims in her book, A Cry In The Silence.
Deneuve, 74, on Monday apologised to the victims of “odious” crimes of sexual abuse, after she signed the much-criticised letter, published in newspaper Le Monde, that claimed men are being unfairly accused of misconduct.