“I am not an aggressor,” Nicolas Bedos says at the opening of his trial for sexual assault and harassment

Tried for sexual assault and harassment of three women between 2018 and 2023, actor and director Nicolas Bedos has denied being a “sexual aggressor”, Thursday, September 26 at the Paris court. “I will never be a sexual aggressor, I do not impose”said the 45-year-old defendant. “We can talk about heaviness, we can talk about flirting (…) but there is no sexual intention”.

In the courtroom, in the front row, the young woman who filed the complaint against him burst into tears upon hearing these remarks. The facts alleged date back to the night of 1^is on June 2, 2023, during a nightclub party. She accuses the director of walking towards her, head down, before reaching out with his right hand to her genitals, over her jeans.

At the bar, Nicolas Bedos supported “not to remember anything” of this evening during which he celebrated his partner’s pregnancy. “I sincerely wish I could remember what happened.” “Our lives have changed, my life has changed,” he moaned. “I don’t dispute what she said, but it’s her interpretation of a gesture.”he continued, arguing that he would never have been able to put his hand “on a woman’s vagina, even over jeans”.

The defendant admitted to having a problem with alcohol, but he said he was undergoing therapy and was drinking less today, while turning to his partner, Pauline Desmonts, sitting in the front row, and to his sister and mother, also present.

“It costs so much to file a complaint”

Called to the stand to testify, the complainant had difficulty recounting the evening, her voice breaking into sobs when she had to mime the attack. “I couldn’t say how long it lasted. I saw who this man was, his eyes scared me”she explained, curling up in her gray hoodie. “It costs so much to file a complaint, I can’t sleep anymore… I wish it didn’t exist”continued the young woman, “but it’s serious”.

In the front row, the two other young women who had denounced the director’s behavior listened to this testimony. One of them, a waitress in a Parisian bar, told investigators that Nicolas Bedos had grabbed her by the waist and kissed her on the neck on the night of May 11 to 12, 2023, while the latter was drunk.

The other alleged act, described as sexual harassment, dates back to June 2018. The director is suspected of having touched a young woman’s stomach and asking her to kiss him, before following her as she went to the toilet. Neither of these two women filed a complaint, but one of them announced at the start of the trial that she would be a civil party.

A provocative artist, Nicolas Bedos has brought together the cream of French cinema, from Jean Dujardin (“OSS 117: Red Alert in Black Africa”) to Isabelle Adjani (“Masquerade”), including Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet and Fanny Ardant. Various figures in French cinema have been caught up in accusations of sexual violence for several months.