Gérard Depardieu: actor Hélène Darras files complaint of sexual assault
A second actor has filed an official complaint against Gérard Depardieu, claiming the French star sexually assaulted her on the set of the 2007 film Disco.
Full details of Hélène Darras’s allegations against the French star will air on the French investigative news show Complément d’Enquête on Thursday evening.
Darras was 26 when she had a walkon role as a contestant in a dance competition in Disco, a comedy in which Depardieu co-starred.
“He looked at me as if I were a piece of meat,” Darras said of Depardieu in an interview excerpt, recalling that he “came up to me and then passed his hand over my hips and buttocks”.
He then reportedly asked her if she wanted to come to his dressing room; Darras declined but “that didn’t change anything. He kept groping me between takes.”
Darras said that she did not report the actor at the time for fear it would lead to her being “blacklisted”. “I was an extra. I hadn’t even finished theatre school. I really wanted to be an actress.”
It is understood investigators are studying the complaint, which may be barred by France’s statute of limitations, to determine whether or not to formalise action against Depardieu.
In 2018, the actor Charlotte Arnould accused the actor of rape. He denied all charges; the case is currently working its way through the courts.
In May this year, investigative news website Médiapart published an indepth report detailing allegations by 13 women. Two separate allegations formed part of an investigation by French radio station France Inter.
Depardieu has denied all charges and, in October 2023, published an open letter in French newspaper Le Figaro defending himself. “Never, ever have I abused a woman,” he wrote. “To the media court, to the lynching that has
been reserved for me, I have only my word to defend myself.”
He continued by saying he is “neither a rapist nor a predator” but would not be getting involved in “any projects” given the “context” of the allegations.