The French actor has been released Gerard Depardieuplaced in custody following accusations of sexual assault lodged by two women relating to episodes in September 2021, during the filming of the film 'Les Volets verts' by Jean Becker.
The actor, reported the Paris prosecutor's office, will be judged next October.
The reckoning has therefore arrived for Gérard Depardieu, the most famous French actor in the world, known for his exuberance and symbol of sexual abuse which caused a real revolt – the so-called #metoo – in the world of French cinema. To denounce Depardieu in this vein of numerous sexual accusations concerning him, are two women.
From today, the actor must answer to the police for sexual violence and harassment on the sets of two films: in 2014 while filming Jean-Pierre Mocky's «Le Magicien et les Nois», and in 2021, on the set of «Les Volets verts” by Jean Becker. The first to report it, a set designer, talks about events that occurred in September 2021.
Depardieu was taking part in the filming of Becker's film when, one day, while he was sitting in a corridor, he grabbed the woman with his legs, pinning her between his thighs. The alleged victim claims he was then groped on her abdomen, breasts and buttocks. The actor would also have told her «I'll plant my big umbrella in your sex». The woman is a 53-year-old mother of a family, who spoke to the investigators of a “wolf trap” that she felt closing on her, with a “phenomenal force” on his part. So much so that it would have taken the intervention of a third person to free her from Depardieu's legs that were holding her tight.
The film team pushed the actor to apologize and, according to what was gathered from the testimonies, he did so by stating “I apologize because I have to apologize…”. But later, he would insult her throughout filming, calling her a “whore.” The woman then explained that she has no longer been able to work since then, that she suffers from anxiety attacks and post-traumatic stress. In a letter sent to Le Figaro last October, Gérard Depardieu provided the “truth” about him, denying the accusations.
The second to file a complaint told the regional newspaper Le Courrier de l'Ouest that, a few days before the shooting of the short film “Le Magicien et les Nois” in March 2014, all the technical staff and actors went to Depardieu's house, in the central rue du Cherche-midi in Paris, to prepare for the filming. On that occasion, an assistant who was 24 years old at the time, claims to have suffered sexual harassment. Depardieu would have touched her lower back, addressing her obscene phrases. At the beginning of filming, the actor crossed her again and repeated the physical harassment, then touched her in the private parts and uttered explicit phrases.
Finally, Gérard Depardieu has been under investigation since 2020 for rape and sexual violence against the actress Charlotte Arnould. The actress Hélène Darras had also reported Depardieu for sexual violence during the filming of a film in 2007, but the crime was statute barred. In Spain, Depardieu is the subject of a complaint by the journalist and writer Ruth Bazawho accuses him of having raped her in 1995. “Never, ever – wrote Depardieu in the letter to Le Figaro – have I abused a woman”.