Charlotte Lewis
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Charlotte Lewis | |
|---|---|
 Lewis in 2018 | |
| Born | 7 August 1967 Kensington, London, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1984–present |
Charlotte Lewis (born 7 August 1967) is an English actress.[1] She is best known as Kee Nang in the 1986 film The Golden Child.
Early life
[edit]Lewis attended Bishop Douglass School in Finchley. Her mother is Irish-English, and her father is half-Chilean and half-Iraqi.[2]
In an interview with News of the World, Lewis opened up about her sexual past as a 14 year old. "One morning I woke to find a pile of Pounds 50 notes next to the bed. I couldn’t remember quite what had happened, but when I saw the money I knew what was going on and felt sick." She believes that she was drugged. "Obviously she was making deals with these people, taking money off them so they could have sex with an underage girl." She goes on to explain how this older friend took her to a meeting with several Arab men, and was offered thousands of pounds to go to Saudi Arabia with them. "I could see these men eyeing me hungrily, like meat, and I thought, ‘My God, I’ve got to get out. They’ll kidnap me, take me out of the country’. It was like an Alice in Wonderland house with long corridors and door after door. I made an excuse, then ran. The men came chasing me, but I managed to escape. I still believe to this day that if I’d not got out I would have been kidnapped and smuggled out of the country to end up as a sex slave."[3]
Career
[edit]Lewis made her film debut as a teenager in the 1986 Roman Polanski film Pirates. She followed it that same year with the female lead in The Golden Child alongside Eddie Murphy.[4] Later appearances include the film Tripwire (1990) and Storyville (1992), opposite James Spader. She had a co-starring role in Men of War (1994), alongside Dolph Lundgren, and in the 1995 film Decoy. Lewis appeared in the 2003 film Hey DJ.
Lewis also appeared in a cover-featured pictorial in the July 1993 issue of Playboy magazine.[5]
In 1995, Lewis appeared in the direct-to-video erotic horror film Embrace of the Vampire (starring Alyssa Milano) and guest-starred in an episode of the sitcom Seinfeld as George Costanza's seemingly-bulimic girlfriend.
Lewis acted in the 2019 film Lost Angelas playing Angie Malone, one of the title roles.[6]
Accusation against Roman Polanski
[edit]On 14 May 2010, Lewis and her Los Angeles-based attorney Gloria Allred accused Roman Polanski of having sexually assaulted Lewis when she was 16 years old,[7] while the two were working on Pirates.[8][9] Prosecutors in Los Angeles confirmed that they interviewed Lewis in connection with the allegations. According to Lewis, the incident occurred at Polanski's Paris apartment in 1983.[10]
On 17 May 2010, an article called into question Lewis' testimony by referencing an account of events she gave in an interview with the UK's News of the World, in which she had spoken of a relationship with Polanski, along with several other actors.[11] Later, in December 2019, French magazine L’Obs came back to the News of the World story, relating a "violent campaign to discredit her" in the media. Charlotte Lewis said: "I was completely alone in 2010. No one believed me. They said I was a prostitute, a liar. I'm a little anxious to talk. The media got me so depressed."[12]
Lewis filed a claim for defamation, and Polanski was charged under French law. She told the court, which specialised in media cases, and was concerned with the defamation and not the rape allegation, that she had become the victim of a "smear campaign" that "nearly destroyed" her life. Polanski did not attend any of the hearings, including the verdict given in his favour in May 2024, when he was acquitted of the defamation.[13]
Filmography
[edit]Film
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Pirates | María-Dolores de la Jenya de la Calde | |
| 1986 | The Golden Child | Kee Nang | |
| 1988 | Dial: Help | Jenny Cooper | |
| 1989 | Tripwire | Trudy | |
| 1989 | The Legend of the Emerald Princess | Emerald Princess | Short |
| 1990 | Stranger in the House | Unknown | |
| 1991 | Healing Hurts | Unknown | |
| 1992 | Storyville | Lee Tran | |
| 1993 | Excessive Force | Anna Gilmour | |
| 1994 | Lipstick Camera | Roberta Dailey | |
| 1994 | Men of War | Loki | |
| 1995 | Embrace of the Vampire | Sarah | |
| 1995 | Decoy | Katya | |
| 1996 | The Glass Cage | Jacqueline | |
| 1996 | Navajo Blues | Elizabeth Wyako | |
| 1997 | Mutual Needs | Louise Collier | |
| 1999 | Every Dog Has Its Day | Jill | |
| 2003 | Henry X | Mrs. Morgan | |
| 2003 | Hey DJ | Tai | |
| 2019 | Lost Angelas | Angie Malone |
Television
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Crime Story | Mai Lan | "Femme Fatale" |
| 1990–1991 | Broken Bridges | Priscilla Mather | Recurring role |
| 1991 | Bare Essentials | Tarita | TV film |
| 1992 | Sketch Artist | Leese | TV film |
| 1993 | Red Shoe Diaries | Claire | "Midnight Bells" |
| 1995 | Seinfeld | Nina | "The Switch" |
| 1996 | Viper | Evangeline Raines | "White Fire" |
| 1996 | Renegade | Kate | "The Pipeline" |
| 1999 | Highlander: The Raven | Jade | "The Frame" |
References
[edit]- ^ "Charlotte Lewis". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on 19 September 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ^ "Roman Polanski's New Protégée, Charlotte Lewis, Star of Pirates and All of 18". People Magazine Vol. 26 No. 4. 28 July 1986. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
- ^ "Wild Child: Charlotte Lewis full-text interview". La Règle du Jeu. 27 May 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
- ^ Angeli, Michael. "Brit Force". Playboy. 40 (7) pp. 132–140. July 1993. ISSN 0032-1478.
- ^ Playboy cover, July 1993
- ^ LePire, Bobby (29 March 2019). "Lost Angelas". Film Threat. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
- ^ "UK News & Business Directory". Printwords.co.uk. 15 May 2010. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ^ Alpert, Lukas I. (15 May 2010). "New Polanski sex shock". New York Post. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ^ Lee, Ken (14 May 2010). "New Accuser Alleges Sexual Abuse by Roman Polanski". People. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ^ Deutsch, Linda (14 May 2010). "Charlotte Lewis: Roman Polanski Molested Me When I Was 16". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 17 May 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ^ Pape, Eric (17 May 2010). "Roman Polanski Accuser, Charlotte Lewis, Lying?". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
- ^ ""Charlotte Lewis a accusé Roman Polanski : « On a dit que j'étais une prostituée, une menteuse »"". L’Obs. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
- ^ "Roman Polanski acquitted of defamation". The Guardian. 14 May 2024. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
External links
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- Living people
- 1967 births
- 20th-century English actresses
- 21st-century English actresses
- English film actresses
- English people of Chilean descent
- English people of Iraqi descent
- English people of Irish descent
- English television actresses
- Actresses from London
- People from Kensington
- Actors from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
- British screen actor stubs