Depardieu deep in doo over French slur
FRANCE: It was hailed as the perfect part for an icon of French cinema: the powerful Gallic boss of an important world body brought down by his inability to control his sexual urges.
But Gerard Depardieu, who is playing Dominique Strauss-kahn in a forthcoming film, has stunned his compatriots by describing the disgraced former boss of the International Monetary Fund as arrogant and smug – before adding that French people were pretty much all cast in the same mould.
Commentators reacted angrily to Depardieu’s comments about his home country, made in an interview on Swiss television. The remarks are likely to undermine his popularity, but are also an embarrassment to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has welcomed Depardieu’s support in his campaign for re-election.
When the star was asked why he had agreed to play StraussKahn in a film about the rape claims that led to the downfall of the Socialist politician, he replied: ‘‘Because I don’t like him.’’
Speaking slowly and appearing to slur his words, Depardieu – known to appreciate a good French wine – said: ‘‘He is not likeable. I think he is a bit like all French people, a little arrogant.’’
In a comment that may haunt him for years, he went on: ‘‘Besides, I don’t like the French, especially those like him.’’
The interviewer wanted to know if he thought Strauss-kahn was typically French. ‘‘Very, very,’’ Depardieu answered. ‘‘Arrogant, self-important.’’ The film will be directed by Abel Ferrara and is likely to feature Isabelle Adjani as Anne Sinclair, Strauss-kahn’s wife.
Depardieu, star of such films as Green Card and Cyrano de Bergerac, was asked if StraussKahn’s alleged failure to control his sexual impulses made him likeable.
Apparently misunderstanding the question, he answered: ‘‘That’s not what makes him unlikeable. It’s what he is when he walks with his hand in his pocket.’’
The actor said that he had not been moved by the sight of
Actor Gerard Depardieu widened an attack on disgraced former IMF head Dominique Strauss-kahn to a slur on the French generally. Strauss-kahn in the dock in a court in New York after Nafissatou Diallo, a hotel chambermaid, accused him of rape last spring.
‘‘I have never been moved by people who don’t have any dignity,’’ he said.
The interview generated a mixture of anger and incredulity yesterday.
Le Parisien newspaper accused Depardieu of ‘‘setting upon’’ the French, while film critic Guillaume Loison said that he was an ‘‘immense artist’’ falling into ‘‘obscenity’’. The actor was ‘‘flamboy- ant in his decline and thetic’’, Loison said.
Depardieu was present at Sarkozy’s rally outside Paris last weekend, when he said the president had ‘‘done nothing but good’’ in office.
The satirical weekly, Le Canard Enchaine, quoted the actor as saying: ‘‘Every time I’ve asked something of Sarko, he’s helped.’’ But, Loison noted, Depardieu’s backing was no longer ‘‘good news’’ for the president.
His comments will not do much to help Strauss-kahn, either.
The economist may have been
often
pa- cleared of rape allegations in New York, but he is facing a civil case there and an inquiry in France into claims he was linked to a prostitution network.
It is by no means the first time that Depardieu has provoked a scandal.
Last year he delayed a ParisDublin flight when he urinated in the aisle of the aircraft.
But the French have always forgiven him, seeing him as a pleasure-seeker who sometimes goes too far.
This time, that may not be the case.