Gérard Depardieu faces fresh sexual assault claim from set designer
The French actor Gérard Depardieu, who is under investigation for alleged rape, is facing another accusation of sexual assault.
A set designer has filed a legal complaint against the actor claiming he sexually harassed and assaulted her on a film set in 2021.
French media reported it was the second allegation of sexual misconduct by Depardieu, 75, during shooting of the 2022 film Les VoletsVerts (The Green Shutters), which also stars Anouk Grinberg and Fanny Ardant in Paris.
Carine Durrieu Diebolt, the lawyer for the complainant, named only as Amélie, 53, told Agence France-Presse on Sunday she had lodged a legal complaint with the prosecutor’s office.
Amélie told the online newspaper Mediapart that Depardieu had made a number of offensive remarks to her on 10 September 2021. While he was sitting in a corridor, the actor “brutally grabbed her”, pinned her between his thighs with “phenomenal force” and “kneaded her waist and stomach right up to her breasts”, she said.
She added the actor’s bodyguard on the film set had interrupted the alleged incident, which she described as like being caught in a “wolf trap”.
Durrieu Diebolt told BFM TV: “At the time, she didn’t press charges because she didn’t want to mar the work of her colleagues and the release of the film, and the kindness of the film crew allowed her to think she was going to be fine. But the trauma persisted.”
She said it resurfaced last October when Depardieu published an open letter saying: “I have never, ever abused a woman.”
Since these events, the plaintiff had been unable to work, and had anxiety attacks and post-traumatic stress, the lawyer said.
Durrieu Diebolt told AFP she sent her complaint to the Paris public prosecutor’s office last Friday, alleging sexual assault, sexist insult and harassment. The public prosecutor will decide if there is a case to answer and if so what legal action should be taken to investigate. The Paris prosecutor’s office has not confirmed the lodging of the complaint and Depardieu’s lawyers have not commented.
According to Mediapart, another woman, named as Sarah, 33, an assistant director on the same shoot, accused Depardieu of having touched her “breasts and buttocks”.
In December 2020, Depardieu was officially put under investigation – the equivalent of being charged – for the alleged “rape and sexual assault” of the actor Charlotte Arnould, who told police he raped her at his apartment in Paris in 2018 when she was 22.
Depardieu said the allegations were “baseless” and that any encounter with Arnould had been consensual. He attempted to have the charges thrown out, but a Paris court last year said there was“serious and confirmed evidence that justifies Gérard Depardieu remaining charged”. The case is working its way through the legal system.
A dozen other women have come forward to accuse the actor of sexual abuse. In January, prosecutors ordered the closure of a case brought by the actor Hélène Darras, who claimed Depardieu had sexually abused her during the shooting of the 2007 film Disco, because it was past the statute of limitations.
Darras was one of the 13 women to accuse Depardieu of sexual misconduct in an investigative story by Mediapart in April 2023.
The allegations against the actor, a giant of the French screen who has regularly made controversial headlines since his career began more than 50 years ago, not least over his decision to move to Russia, divide public opinion in France.
In December there was outrage when 50 artists signed an open letter protesting that Depardieu was being “lynched” and robbed of his right to be presumed innocent. A group of about 600 people then signed a counter letter calling for help and support for victims of sexual abuse.
Emmanuel Macron expressed support for the actor in a television interview, calling him an “immense actor … who makes France proud” and saying he should benefit from the presumption of innocence. The French president said Depardieu was the target of a “manhunt”.