PARIS (AFP) – French actor Gerard Despardieu, faced a string of assault and rape allegations, was brought to trial in Paris on Monday when he was accused of sexually abusing two women during a 2021 filming.
Depardieu, 76, who has made more than 200 films and television series, has been accused of inappropriate behavior by around 20 women, but this is the first case he has been brought to trial.
He is the best person to face accusations of occasionally lagging reactions to the sometimes late #MeToo movement of French films.
The previous lawsuit in Paris Crown Court concerns accusations of sexual assault during filming of director Djenbecker Lesveletts Base (“Green Shutter”) in 2021.
Anouk Grinberg, a well-known actor who appeared in the film, supported the two plaintiffs. He is a set dresser, 54 and 34 years old assistant director. Both women advocate sexual violence.
Grinberg said Depardou had always made “shady remarks,” telling AFP:
The trial, originally scheduled to be held in October, was postponed due to the health of the actor.
At the time, Depardieu's lawyer Jeremie Assous said the actor suffered from a quadruple heart bypass and suffered from diabetes, which was exacerbated by the stress of future trials.
Depardieu has since been seen by court-appointed medical professionals, who has established him as a fitting fit for him to appear in court, Assous said.
“But he has expressed his reservation,” Asas told AFP.
According to the lawyers, Depardieu's court appearance should be limited to six hours a day, and he will take a break whenever he “needs.”
Assous says the actors “deny all the accusations they have in their entirety.”
“Indecent remarks”
One of Depardieu's two accusers, set dressers, reported that she was suffering from sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults during filming last February.
She told French research website Mediapart that Depardieu began calling out cooling fans loudly while filming.
She boasted that he “can give women an orgasm without touching them,” and an hour later Depardieu claimed that she “grabed her.”
The actor groped her hips and stomach, then continued up to her chest and secured her by “closing her legs” around her, she added.
Depardieu made the following “indecent remarks”:
She explained that the actor's bodyguard was dragging him out.
“My client hopes that the trial will move on this time,” lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt told AFP.
The second plaintiff, the assistant director, also claims sexual violence.
“What my client wants is that there will be a trial, but I'm also worried about how Depardou's defense will treat the Civic Party at the hearing,” said lawyer Claude Vincent.
“Never, but never.”
Overall, around 20 women have accused Depardieu of inappropriate behaviour, but the restrictions law has dropped some cases.
French actor Charlotte Arnoll was the first woman to file criminal charges against Despardou in 2018. Last August, the Paris prosecutor's office called for a trial for rape and sexual assault.
“Never, but never, I have abused a woman,” Despardou wrote in an open letter to the conservative daily Le Figaro.
He was not a stranger in the scandal, but made headlines for brawls, drunk driving and urinating in the aisle of planes.
A 2023 documentary on French television, entitled “The Fall of the Ogre,” shows the actor repeatedly making explicit sexual comments in front of a female interpreter on a 2018 trip to North Korea, showing that he is sexualizing a little girl riding a horse.
