"He was shocked, dumbfounded, but he is in a fighting mood and he is very determined to defend himself," he added.
Polanski calls it a "great pleasure to meet Andrzej on the film set after all those years."
"I am widely regarded, I know, as an evil, profligate dwarf," Polanski wrote in his autobiography. "My friends -- and the women in my life -- know better."
In a statement afterwards, Polanski said: "It goes without saying that whilst the whole episode is a sad one, I am obviously pleased with the jury's verdict. Three years of my life have been interrupted. Three years within which I have had no choice...
"I put a lot of work and energy into the development of Pompeii, so it is not without regret that I have to decline my further involvement," Polanski said in a statement.
"Obviously, the whole film is about survival," Polanski says via satellite at a Los Angeles gathering of 2002's Directors Guild of America nominees. "For me, it was the preponderant theme of my childhood and youth."
The exciting thing about discovering Szpilman's story "is that it wasn't TOO personal — it was something I know about, remember very well, something that could help me recreate the events without talking about myself," Polanski says at...
"It's a shame to have such poor questions, such empty questions," Polanski said. "And I think that it's really the computer which has brought you down to this level. You're no longer interested in what's going on in the cinema.
Polanski, 74, said he had been interested in directing a political thriller, "and 'The Ghost' could not be more perfect. Robert has constructed a novel with such suspense, it is hard to put down."
The French government has dropped its public support for Roman Polanski, saying the 76-year-old director "is neither above nor beneath the law".
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