Indicted for rape and targeted by numerous complaints of sexual violence, the giant of French cinema, Gérard Depardieu, is on trial this Monday in Paris for sexual assault on two women during filming in 2021.
The first of them, a 55-year-old decorator, filed a complaint in February 2024 for sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist outrages during the filming of the film “Les Volets Verts” by Jean Becker in 2021, which resulted in the opening of an investigation. She denounced facts dating back to September 2021 which allegedly took place in a Parisian mansion.
According to his account to Mediapart, the actor would have notably “grabbed her with brutality” and “blocked her by closing her legs on [elle] like a crab”, before “kneading his waist, his stomach, going up to [ses] breasts”. He also allegedly made obscene remarks to her, such as “Come touch my big parasol, I’m going to shove it in your pussy”.
Gérard Depardieu’s defense disputes the accusations, calling them false and motivated by greed. “The witnesses and the evidence that he will produce will demonstrate that he is only the target of false accusations,” says Mr. Assous. “The goal pursued has just been revealed through the compensation requests: to enrich themselves by 30,000 euros.”
The actor, aged 75, will also be judged for sexual violence denounced in a complaint by another woman, an assistant director on the same film.
This filming also marked the actress Anouk Grinberg, who had mentioned “salaceries” on the part of Gérard Depardieu “from morning to evening”, in an interview with AFP. “When film producers hire Depardieu on a film, they know they are hiring an aggressor.”
Figure of French cinema known throughout the world, Gérard Depardieu, was accused of identical behavior by around twenty women.
French actress Charlotte Arnould was the first to file a complaint. In August, the Paris prosecutor’s office requested a trial for rape and sexual assault against the actor.
An investigation is also underway in Paris after a complaint from a former film assistant accusing Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault in 2014.
The Spanish journalist and writer, Ruth Baza, for her part accuses Gérard Depardieu of having raped her in 1995.
“Never, ever have I abused a woman,” the actor assured him in an open letter published in the French daily Le Figaro on October 1, 2023.
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