French superstar faces rape probe
PARIS — France’s biggest international star Gerard Depardieu on Thursday issued a strong denial after it emerged he faces an inquiry into allegations by a young actress of rape and sexual assault.
Depardieu “absolutely denies any attack, any rape”, his lawyer Herve Temime said on his behalf, reacting to news that the Paris public prosecutor’s office has opened a preliminary inquiry over alleged “rapes and sexual assaults”.
The probe followed a complaint lodged on Monday in southern Provence, according to a judicial source.
The complainant was “a young actress and dancer in her twenties”, The Parisian newspaper said, adding that she alleged the actor sexually abused her on the sidelines of a play rehearsal and at his home on Aug 7 and 13.
Depardieu, 69, is known as a larger-than-life character with a lifelong penchant for making headlines.
The accusations against him are the latest in a string made against prominent men in the wake of the rape and assault claims against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and the “Me Too” movement that they gave rise to.
“I regret the public nature of this process which poses a major prejudice to Gerard Depardieu, whose innocence I am convinced will be recognized,” his lawyer Temime said.
A prolific actor having made nearly 200 films over six decades, Depardieu became the face of French cinema due to roles in films such as
for which he won best actor at the Cannes film festival and was nominated for an Oscar.
He made his name in the 1974 film after which he enjoyed a meteoric rise, demonstrating talent and allure in wide-ranging roles in classics, dramas and comedies alike.
Born in 1948 to an illiterate alcoholic metal worker, he was the third of six children raised in extreme poverty.
In his 2014 autobiography This Is How It Happened, Depardieu said his mother told him as a child she had tried to abort him using knitting needles to avoid the expense of another baby.
By his own account, Depardieu began running with bad company early on, hanging out with prostitutes before himself working as a rent boy. He committed a variety of crimes — including, he claimed, grave robbery — before landing in jail at 16 for stealing a car.
“At 20, the thug in me was alive and well,” he wrote.
In 2013 Depardieu sparked a huge outcry by leaving France and taking Russian nationality in protest at a proposed tax hike on the rich in his homeland.