A week after the publication of a pro-Depardieu column, the signatories are gradually reversing their decision.
“Don’t erase Gérard Depardieu”, they pleaded a week ago in the columns of Figaro. Of the 56 personalities who chose to sign, many have followed one another in recent days to backtrack. In particular, the political convictions of the author of the column, a certain Yannis Ezziadi, a little-known actor close to far-right figures, but also himself accused by certain actors of what looks like harassment, notes Release.
Among them, the actor Pierre Richard. On Gérard Depardieu“, before emphasizing that “this text does not reflect support [qu’il] to all victims of sexual assault”. Affirming that he had signed “without knowing the ideological movement” of the author of the column, he said he was “sincerely sorry, upset”.
For his part, Jacques Weber confessed in a column published on Mediapart having “misread and signed this emphatic and indiscriminate petition initiated by dishonest and dangerous people” and having, “by reflex of friendship, signed in haste, without [se] to inform […] forgetting the victims”. And the actor believes: “Yes, my signature was another rape.” “I signed”, for her part recognized Carole Bouquet on Instagram, before retracting her turn: “However, I do not support the ideas and values associated with the journalist behind this column.”
“I ask the people I have shocked not to blame me for my serious error”, for his part pleaded in the columns of Point Nadine Trintignant, whose daughter Marie died in 2003 at the hands of her partner, Bertrand Cantat. “I regret having signed it,” director Patrice Leconte also admitted on LCI, while actor Charles Berling justified himself on Instagram: “I signed it, because, as a citizen, artist and cultural manager, I defend the legitimacy of justice against the effects of horde and pack and it is this collective hatred, made possible by the massive use of social networks, that I wanted to denounce”, before apologizing to the people he hurt.
“What annoys me is the media trial before even knowing whether he is guilty or not,” said Gérard Darmon, as relayed RTL. And director Yvan Attal backpedals on BFMTV: “I did not sign […] against women”, before qualifying by affirming that Gérard Depardieu “has the right not to be publicly lynched” and that “we must let justice speak”.