French actor Gerard Depardieu went on trial at a Paris court docket Monday charged with sexually assaulting two ladies throughout a 2021 movie shoot, as his lawyer vowed to indicate all of the accusations have been “false”.
Depardieu, 76, who has acted in additional than 200 movies and tv collection, has been accused of improper behaviour by round 20 ladies however that is the primary case to come back to trial.
He is the highest-profile determine to face accusations in French cinema’s response to the #MeToo motion.
Depardieu, wearing a darkish go well with with no tie, sat on a stool going through the court docket because the trial received underway within the early afternoon.
He slowly made his method to the witness stand, wincing as he walked, to verify his identification. The two plaintiffs have been additionally current within the courtroom.
The trial pertains to prices of sexual assault in the course of the filming in 2021 of “Les Volets Verts” (“The Green Shutters”) by director Jean Becker.
Anouk Grinberg, a distinguished actor who appeared within the movie, has backed the 2 plaintiffs — a set dresser, 54, and a 34-year-old assistant director. Both ladies allege sexual violence.
Grinberg stated that Depardieu had continuously made “salacious remarks” throughout capturing, and informed AFP that producers who employed him knew they have been “hiring an abuser”.
Depardieu’s lawyer, Jeremie Assous, informed AFP simply earlier than the listening to began that he would present “in an impartial, objective and undeniable manner that all the accusations are false”.
Feminist activists protested exterior the courtroom earlier than the trial began.
The defendant’s youthful daughter, Roxane Depardieu, and her mom, Depardieu’s ex-partner Karine Silla, in addition to actor Fanny Ardant have been among the many movie star’s supporters contained in the courtroom.
Ardant then left the room after the defence staff cited her as a witness.
The trial, initially scheduled to happen in October 2024, had been postponed because of the actor’s ailing well being.
Assous stated again then that Depardieu had undergone a coronary heart bypass operation and suffered from diabetes that was aggravated by the stress of the forthcoming trial.
According to Assous, Depardieu’s court docket appearances will probably be restricted to 6 hours a day and he’ll take breaks at any time when he “needs”.
One of Depardieu’s two accusers, the 54-year-old set dresser known as Amelie, reported in February final yr that she had suffered sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults throughout filming in September 2021.
She informed French investigative web site Mediapart that Depardieu boasted he might “give women an orgasm without touching them” and that an hour later Depardieu “brutally grabbed” her.
The actor pinned her by “closing his legs” round her earlier than groping her waist and her abdomen, persevering with as much as her breasts, she added.
She stated Depardieu made “obscene remarks” together with: “Come and touch my big parasol. I’ll stick it in your pussy.”
She described the actor’s bodyguards dragging him away as he shouted: “We’ll see each other again, my dear.”
The second plaintiff, the 34-year-old assistant director, alleges the actor groped her “breasts and bum” in August 2021, in accordance with Mediapart.
Overall, round 20 ladies have accused Depardieu of improper behaviour, however a number of circumstances have been dropped because of the statute of limitations.
French actor Charlotte Arnould was the primary girl to file a prison criticism towards Depardieu, in 2018.
Last August, the Paris prosecutor’s workplace requested a trial for rape and sexual assault, accusations the well-known actor has constantly denied through the years.
“Never, but never, have I abused a woman,” Depardieu wrote in an open letter to the conservative every day Le Figaro.
Weeks later, President Emmanuel Macron shocked feminists by complaining of a “manhunt” concentrating on Depardieu, whom he known as a “towering actor” who “makes France proud”.
Depardieu is not any stranger to scandal, having made headlines for brawling, drink driving and urinating within the aisle of a airplane.
A 2023 French tv documentary known as “The Fall of the Ogre” confirmed the actor on a 2018 journey to North Korea repeatedly making specific sexual feedback in entrance of a feminine interpreter and showing to sexualise a small woman driving a horse.
© 2025 AFP