The dark side of Hollywood: Luc Besson and the horrible truth behind ‘Leon: The Professional’
Over the past few years, many women have come forward with experiences of sexual assault at the hands of film industry giants, encouraged to share their stories by the #MeToo movement. Hollywood is a lucrative industry, and with positions of power comes exploitation; as Jenny Holzer famously wrote, “Abuse of power comes as no surprise”. Still, that doesn’t make the rampant abuse any less horrific, and the perpetrators deserve to be held accountable for their actions.
Luc Besson began his career as an independent director, associated with the cinéma du look movement of the 1980s. By the 1990s, he had received widespread acclaim, and by the 2000s, he became the driving force behind many Hollywood blockbusters. Besson has had an incredibly successful career, yet, many people seem happy to ignore that when he was 31, he began dating a 15-year-old.
The director first met the child actor Maïwenn when she was 12, waiting just three years to begin a romantic relationship with her. By the time she was 16, the pair were married, and Maïwenn had given birth to the couple’s daughter, Shanna. It was the early 1990s, and Besson had just released La Femme Nikita, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’. The director was on the cusp of breaking into Hollywood, yet, no one seemed to bat an eyelid at the fact that his wife was a child.
Even worse, Besson’s big break came with Leon: The Professional, the tale of an unlikely emotional relationship between a 12-year-old girl and an adult hitman. The film starred Natalie Portman in her first role and opposite Jean Reno, with Gary Oldman giving an electrifying performance as a corrupt DEA agent. Although Leon: The Professional is undoubtedly a good film, it’s hard to get past the fact that, according to Maïwenn, the film was inspired by her relationship with the director.
The actor/filmmaker explained: “When Luc Besson did Léon, the story of a 13-year-old girl in love with an older man, it was very inspired by us since it was written while our story started. But no media made the link”. Although the movie was received well by critics, it has long been noted that the scene where Portman’s Mathilda attempts to sing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President’ seductively, imitating Marilyn Monroe, feels unnecessary. Still, that’s not the worst moment of the movie; a cut scene shows the 12-year-old telling Leon that she’d like him to take her virginity. Moreover, an uncomfortable scene where the hitman walks in on Mathilda in the shower luckily never made it off the page, thanks to Portman’s parents’ insistence.
After the film’s release, Portman found herself sexualised due to her role, even receiving ‘fan mail’ that involved disturbing rape fantasies penned by adult men. In an episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, Portman explained: “When I was in my teens, I was like, ‘I don’t wanna have any love scenes or make-out scenes’. I would start choosing parts that were less sexy because it made me worried about the way I was perceived and how safe I felt.'”
Since the release of Leon, Besson has worked on movies such as The Fifth Element, Taken, Lucy and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. In 2018, Sand Van Roy, who appeared in Valerian, accused the director of raping her over the course of two years. Although the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence, Roy presented further accusations, with three other women providing allegations of sexual misconduct against the director during the testimony.
Besson maintained his innocence, calling Roy’s claims a “lie from A to Z”, despite admitting to engaging in a sexual relationship with her. The case was eventually dismissed, and the following year, Besson released Anna, a thriller about a female victim of domestic abuse. Despite the countless accusations and widespread knowledge of his paedophilia, Besson is proof that being a powerful man means you can get away with pretty much anything.
