In “A Life of Combat” released in 2023, Benjamin Lavernhe played Abbé Pierre with great conviction.
The actor reacted for the first time to the numerous accusations of sexual violence against the famous clergyman.
“We feel a great betrayal, a great sadness, astonishment,” admitted the 40-year-old actor.
He hadn’t spoken yet. Benjamin Lavernhe, who played Abbé Pierre in Frédéric Tellier’s film A life of combatreacted for the first time to accusations of sexual violence against the famous clergyman. “It’s terrible. I think to the victims there are 25 testimonies, but it’s terrible. Obviously, we feel a great betrayal, a great sadness, astonishment”confided the 40-year-old actor in the show “Beau Geste” on France 2.
An iconic figure in France, Abbé Pierre, whose real name is Henri Grouès, has been accused since July by around twenty women, sometimes minors at the time, of sexual violence committed between the 1950s and the 2000s. and some may amount to rape.
How could this guy who could do such extraordinary things behave so badly, and beyond!
Benjamin Lavernhe
“I’m looking for words, but it’s difficult to find them. Fear, because somewhere, he was a friend. I feel like I knew him a little. Not so well. How this guy who could do such extraordinary things could behave so badly, and beyond! The duality of the human being, the ambivalence, it’s always a shock”continued Benjamin Lavernhe, who was deeply moved to have lent his features to the founder of Emmaüs.
-
Read also
Abbé Pierre: the commission of independent experts becomes clearer
“With Frédéric Tellier and all the teams, we are devastated”he admitted. “And above all the power of secrecy. To think that we missed that and didn’t see it, well, that’s what’s most terrible”. The production and artistic team of the film released at the end of 2023 condemned last September the “crimes” committed by the religious.
