the chilling testimony of Anna Mouglalis on violence in the cinema

A voice that carries. Monday, December 16, Anna Mouglalis delivered chilling testimony before the National Assembly’s commission of inquiry devoted to sexual violence in the artistic and media sectors. Giving specific and painful examples, the 46-year-old actress recounted the attacks and abuse she suffered during her career. And which started very early. “As an actress, when I was 19, I had a 50-year-old actor who, for a casting, buried his head in my lower abdomen while holding me by the hips,” she said. she remembered. Then to assure with his characteristic hoarse voice that the violence often starts from this casting phase. “It turns out that you generally get the role when the director is attracted. But no, we didn’t come to seduce him, we came to play. So there is a big problem there.”

Abuses and humiliations

According to the actress, the abuse does not stop once filming is over. Anna Mouglalis also mentions abuses during the promotion of films, in which the actors are contractually required to participate. The leading actress of the series Black Baron relates in particular a striking example that occurred during the promotion of Thanks for the chocolatea film by Claude Chabrol released in 2000. She was then made the following request: “To be dressed in a chocolate dress in a chocolate salon, and visitors to the salon would be able to help themselves to the point of stripping me naked” . Request which she declined. Grotesque, this situation nevertheless illustrates the pressure and lack of respect often inflicted on young actresses.

Figure of the French #MeToo

Revealed in the drama Terminalwritten and directed by Francis Girod, Anna Mouglalis has become one of the leading figures of French #MeToo. On August 30, 2023, she notably joined four actresses to testify against the French director Philippe Garrel, in the columns of Mediapart. The five women denounced the inappropriate behavior of the filmmaker, between attempts at non-consensual kisses and sexual propositions during professional meetings.

Last January, in the show “C l’hebdo” on France 5, the actress returned to her accusations against Philippe Garrel and described a particularly inappropriate episode, dating from 2014. While she was at home with the director of today 76 years old to prepare their next film, the latter would have lain down in his bed, asking him to come and join him. “I denounce a predatory attitude. The meaning of my testimony is to provide support to those who cannot speak or to those who have suffered. It’s always much easier when you haven’t suffered rape or sexual assault to speak out.”

And to continue: “He clearly says that he needs to sleep with his actresses, I haven’t experienced that. I had already shot the film, but he asked me to give him female texts written about female desire to read. And so I suggested that he read extracts from texts. And during that moment when he came to my house, he went and lay down on my bed. He wanted me to explain female desire to him in a way that was probably a little more literal. There was no desire for it, so I sent it back.” If the director of Regular lovers then claimed to have felt unwell, recalled journalist Aurélie Casse, Anna Mouglalis dismissed this hypothesis out of hand: “Given the geography of my apartment, he had enough to lie down on without getting on my bed. »

In May, Anna Mouglalis was at the initiative of a column, published in The World who called for a “comprehensive law” against sexual and gender-based violence to stop judicial impunity.