Rossy de Palma: “I met Harvey Weinstein and he's a shark”

De Palma, 53, who is best known outside of Spain for her part in George Michael's Too Funky video and for being considered one of designer Jean-Paul Gaultier's muses, says she has 'every respect' for the actresses behind the #Time'sUp and #MeToo movements against sexual harassment and abuse in the film industry.

She opened up about Weinstein whilst presenting the cultural programme of the French embassy in Spain, of which she is a patron, and says she would not normally speak out in this way.

“When things get heated, I prefer to stay in the background and I don't like joining groups any more,” said Rossy, born Rosa Elena García Echave in Palma de Mallorca.

But she also 'respects' the controversial comments made by veteran French actress Catherine Deneuve, or at least, Mme Deneuve's 'freedom' to declare her support for the manifesto which defends men's 'right' to 'flirting and chivalry' against 'feminists' puritanism'.

“If we get rid of the world of seduction, what are we left with?” asks De Palma.

“I'm not really one for making statements; I'm more likely to just take my rights rather than ask for them; I'm more naturally daring in an everyday sense and in everything I have said, I can almost feel more a human being than a woman, and I can empathise with men and women alike.”

She says she 'does not feel represented by' women whom she describes as 'men in skirts', naming German Chancellor Angela Merkel as an example.

“For [Merkel] to get to where she is, she's had to be very strong and to show that she can be like them, like the men,” De Palma concluded.

Photograph: Rossy de Palma at Cannes Film Festival in 2015 (Georges Biard/Wikimedia Commons)