Recommendations of the Editorial team
Gérard Depardieu accuses a stage designer and a director’s assistant sexual assault, harassment and sexist insults. The alleged acts are said to have been committed as early as 2021, filming the film “Les Volet Verts”. The first start of the process was actually planned for October last year, but was then postponed due to the actor’s health problems. The process begins today, March 24, in the Paris Criminal Court.
Violent allegations against the actor
According to the “picture”, Depardieu is said to have brutally grabbed one of the plaintiffs, pushed them on the wall with his legs in their crotch and then touched them immorally “. In addition, he is said to have “made braggling remarks about his genitals and claimed that they can bring women to orgasm without touch”. During the filming, he is said to have “often on the chest and buttocks and talked about her genitals” during the filming. Stuff: inside the “Les Volets Verts” set confirm the allegations. According to the “ZDF”, the actress Anouk Grinberg said: “When film producers Depardieu hire, you know that you are hiring a perpetrator. No potential perpetrator, but a perpetrator.”
In the plea of Depardieus lawyer Jérémie Assouus at the beginning of the process, this position moved into this position and said that the alleged assault was not possible in the narrow rooms on the set.
There are also actors from the film industry who express their solidarity with depardieu. The actor Vincent Perez and his wife Karine Silla also came to the process and greeted the French with cheek kisses.
According to the lawyer of one of the alleged victims, Me Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, her client is said to be “calm”. The only fear was “that there could be incidents in the procedure so that the case is referred back”. How these incidents would look in concrete way was not mentioned.
More than 20 women should be affected
The two plaintiffs of the current process are not the only ones who accuse the former cinema of sexual violence. In total, more than 20 women are said to be victims, most of whom do without a lawsuit. The rape lawsuit of a Spanish journalist and the compulsory action for a French actress have already been rejected because they were statute -barred.
The French actress Charlotte Arnoad was the first woman in 2018 to publicly spoke out against her actor colleague. According to “Bild”, she came to the process as an observer and is still waiting for the process date for her complaint.
The last time Gérard Depardieu commented on the allegations in October 2023. In an open letter in the newspaper “Le Figaro” he wrote: “Never, I have never misused a woman. (…) I am neither a rapist nor a predator.”
Adapted court trial
According to the French newspaper “La Tribune Dimanche”, Depardieu’s health state is not the best. According to a close confidante, he could collect at any time and was “extremely weak”. The actor has been suffering from diabetes for 25 years and, according to his own statement, has had five times bypass surgery and a liver transplant. For these reasons, the process should be adjusted: the hearing should not take longer than six hours and the actor should be given a 15-minute break after three hours, in which he has the opportunity to be cared for by a doctor. He can also eat chocolate and sugar bars, use his smartphone for the diabetes app and both sitting and getting up to prevent leg cramps
If the depardieu is spoken guilty, he faces up to five years of deprivation of liberty and 75,000 euros in fine.