Jacqueline Bisset expresses Reservations About #MeToo, Advocates for Female Discretion at Turin Film Festival
Jacqueline Bisset, the celebrated actress known for roles in films like The Deep and Bullitt, sparked controversy at the 2025 Turin Film Festival with comments regarding the #MeToo movement and the responsibility of women in preventing unwanted advances.Bisset, appearing vibrant and youthful, addressed the topic candidly during a press event.
The actress stated she has “always had a very ambivalent attitude towards #MeToo,” expressing a belief that “women have a responsibility to not always be provocative at all costs.” She elaborated,stating that while she acknowledges a man’s natural instinct,women shouldn’t continually incite it. She used an analogy, suggesting that rather of “getting rid of the dog” when it misbehaves, one should “teach the dog to do it outside the house,” clarifying she wasn’t directly comparing men to animals but highlighting a point about managing instinct.
Bisset, who has enjoyed a prolific career spanning over 80 films, including early work with Roman Polanski (Dead End) and a later role alongside Gérard depardieu in Welcome to New York (a film centered around a figure accused of sexual assault), asserted she has personally never experienced violence. She acknowledged experiencing “complex and challenging situations” in Hollywood but maintained she has “never suffered violence,” attributing outcomes to personal conduct.
She voiced concern over what she perceives as a current trend of “all-out exhibitionism” and narcissism, particularly amplified by social media, where she believes women sometimes “expose themselves and provoke private instincts that can become uncontrolled.” Bisset attributed this behavior, in part, to a lack of strong maternal guidance.she noted a prevalence of “desperate young people, without talent, with a pathological narcissism” who exhibit a “domestic fantasy exhibited at 360 degrees” that she finds unsettling. Bisset herself does not maintain social media profiles.
Despite expressing her views on the topic, Bisset emphasized her abhorrence of abuse and violence, while simultaneously advocating for a shared responsibility. She was in Turin to present The Man of the Seven Nooses,a 1972 film co-starring Paul Newman. Bisset also dismissed the idea of plastic surgery as a “weakness” and described beauty as a “divine gift” about which it felt “indecent” to speak.
