First trial for a cinema giant: Gérard Depardieu, targeted by numerous accusations of sexual violence, is expected in Paris court on Monday to be tried for sexual assault on two women during filming in 2021.
The hearing, which the 75-year-old actor “intends” to attend according to his lawyer Me Jérémie Assous, is due to begin at 1:30 p.m. in front of the 10th chamber of the criminal court.
Gérard Depardieu was given a court summons at the end of April, following police custody, “for sexual assaults likely to have been committed in September 2021 to the detriment of two victims, on the set of film +The green shutters+” by Jean Becker, the prosecution had indicated.
One of the two women, a film decorator, filed a complaint in February 2024 against the actor – indicted for rape in another case – for sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist outrages during the filming of this film, resulting in the opening of an investigation.
“I expect justice to be the same for everyone and that Mr. Depardieu does not benefit from preferential treatment because he is an artist,” his lawyer, Me Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, told AFP.
“The witnesses and the evidence that he will produce will demonstrate that he is only the target of false accusations,” promised Mr. Assous, for whom “the aim pursued has just been revealed through the requests compensation: enrich yourself by 30,000 euros”.
According to the 55-year-old complainant, the alleged acts took place in September 2021, in a private mansion in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
– “Caught brutally” –
In his story to the investigative site Mediapart, the latter explained that Gérard Depardieu would have suddenly shouted during a conversation that he wanted a “fan”, because he could “not even get hard” with this heat, then he would have assured being able to “make women come without touching them”.
An hour later, he allegedly “grabbed her roughly” as she left the set.
Mr. Depardieu would then have “blocked her by closing his legs on (her) like a crab”, then would have “kneaded her waist, her stomach, going up to (her) breasts”, she assured .
He also allegedly made “obscene remarks” to her such as “Come touch my big parasol, I’m going to shove it in your pussy”.
“My client is waiting for justice to establish that Gérard Depardieu is a serial sexual attacker,” added Me Carine Durrieu-Diebolt.
The actor will also be judged for sexual violence denounced in a complaint by another woman, an assistant director on the same film.
During this filming, “from morning to evening, we had the right to our salacious comments”, testified the actress Anouk Grinberg, in an interview with AFP. “When film producers hire Depardieu on a film, they know that they are hiring an aggressor,” she accused.
– Threatened with another trial –
A great figure in French cinema known throughout the world, with more than 200 films, Gérard Depardieu has been accused over the last six years of sexual violence by several women.
Complaints for sexual assault against the actor were dismissed for prescription.
But Gérard Depardieu is under threat of another trial: in August, the Paris prosecutor’s office requested his referral to the criminal court so that he could be tried for rape and sexual assault on the actress Charlotte Arnould.
She was the first to file a complaint against the famous actor in 2018.
“Never, ever have I abused a woman,” Gérard Depardieu defended in an open letter published in Le Figaro on October 1, 2023.
A few weeks later, in December 2023, Emmanuel Macron shocked feminist associations by saluting a “huge actor” who “makes France proud”, denouncing “a manhunt” after the broadcast of a report from “Complément d’Enquête” on France 2, during which the actor made numerous misogynistic and insulting remarks towards women.
Launched in 2017 to denounce the behavior of American producer Harvey Weinstein, the #MeToo movement has swept through French cinema in recent years.
Several big names have been accused of sexual violence, such as directors Jacques Doillon and Benoît Jacquot.
