The French actor Gerard Depardieuaccused of having attacked sexually to two women in 2021, he will be tried in Octoberreported the prosecutor’s office of Parisafter this giant of cinema was released after interrogation police this Monday.
Depardieu75 years old, was detained at the judicial police offices in Pariswhere he was summoned by researchers to interrogate himin a new stage of the judicial saga against this film legend.
The actor was released hours later and the Paris prosecutor’s office announced during the afternoon that he will be tried in October.
“Gérard Depardieu received a summons to appear in court (…) for sexual assaults probably committed in September 2021 to the detriment of two victims during the filming of the movie ‘Les volets verts'”indicated the prosecutor’s office.
The first woman, who reported him in February, is a decorator who was working on the filming of “Les Volets verts” by Jean Becker and who accuses him of sexually assault her in 2021.
The complainant explained to the digital media in March Mediapart that the actor He made indecent comments and then “brutally grabbed her” and “rubbed her waist, her belly, even her breasts.”.
“It’s a relief,” Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, a lawyer representing the decorator, told AFP.
“There are undoubtedly other victims. For now, between 20 and 25 women have reported incidents ranging from contempt to gender violence, including harassment and sexual assault. It is time for him to be judged,” added the lawyer, who also defends a woman who denounced the actor for events dating back to 2014.
According to Mediapart, another woman, who was assistant director In the same filming, he accuses the actor of sexual violence and he also complained.
The actor’s trial will deal with these two accusations.
But Depardieu He was also accused of former assistant filming that denounces similar events in 2014. According to the BFMTV network, the alleged attack occurred during the filming of Jean-Pierre Mocky’s short film, “Le Magicien et les Siamois.”
This woman, who was 24 years old when the events occurred, filed a complaint on January 9in which he accuses him of uttering “indecent words” in his Paris mansion.
Speaking to the regional newspaper Le Courrier de l’Ouest in February, the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, also recalled in particular the actor’s hands “for everything [su] body” during filming.
This Monday’s interrogation was the first time that Depardieu was in police custody for alleged sexual assaults, although in the past fHe was arrested for a drunken motorcycle accident.
Depardieu has a long list of complaints
“I have never abused a woman,” said the actor in an open letter published in October 2023 by the newspaper Le Figaro, in reference to Charlotte Arnould’s accusations.
In December 2020, the court charged Depardieu for sexually assaulting this actress, who reported in August 2018 two rapes at the actor’s Paris home.
At the end of December, the court shelved the complaint of actress Hélène Darras, who accused him of having sexually assaulted her during a filming in 2007, as the statute of limitations had expired.
That month, the Spanish journalist and writer Ruth Baza announced that she had filed a complaint in Spain against the interpreter for rape, for events that allegedly occurred in Paris in 1995.
In total, around twenty women accused him of alleged sexual assaults in the press or in court. According to Mediapart, Depardieu He touched another woman’s “breasts and buttocks” during the filming of Becker’s film.
Jean Becker “knew perfectly well that two women had been seriously attacked,” actress Anouk Grinberg, who participated in the film, said in an interview with AFP.
Depardieu denies the repeated accusations against him, which have become a cultural war front in France, dividing the world of cinema and pitting feminist groups against the actor’s defenders.
Beyond the award-winning interpreter of Cyrano de Bergerac, justice is investigating French filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon for raping a minor, following a complaint by actress Judith Godrèche.
In addition to the complaints, a report on the program “Complément d’enquête” generated a stir in December due to obscene comments by Depardieu about a 10-year-old girl in North Korea who rode a horse.
After the broadcast of the program, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced that the actor was the object of a “manhunt” and offered his support to an “immense actor” who made France feel “proud.”