New important step in the investigations into sexual assault targeting Gérard Depardieu: the actor, already indicted for rape and sexual assault in another case, was placed in police custody on Monday April 29 in Paris, said a source close to investigation. He must be heard after complaints from two women who accuse him of sexual assault committed in 2021 and 2014.
4 mins
Gérard Depardieu was summoned to be interviewed in the premises of the 3rd district of the Parisian judicial police (3rd DPJ), a police source told AFP, confirming information from BFMTV. His lawyers, Mes Christian Saint-Palais and Béatrice Geissmann Achille, did not respond to requests from Agence France-Presse.
A decorator, who worked on the team of the film “Les Volets Verts” directed by Jean Becker, accuses him of having sexually assaulted her in 2021. When asked, her lawyer, Maître Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, did not wish to comment the summons of the actor.
His client filed a complaint in February 2024 for sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults. The facts date back to September 2021 and took place in a private hotel in Paris.
According to the latter’s story recounted in the columns of Mediapart, the actor would have made many serious comments during filming, then later would have “ caught with brutality » and he would have “ kneaded the waist, the stomach, going up to her breasts “. He also made “obscene remarks” to her such as “ come touch my big parasol, I’m going to shove it in your pussy “, she told the news site.
During this filming, “ from morning to evening, we had the right to his “salaceries” », Testified actress Anouk Grinberg, in an interview with AFP. “ When film producers hire Depardieu on a film, they know they are hiring an aggressor “, she accused.
Read alsoFrance: the wax statue of actor Gérard Depardieu removed from the Grévin museum
In custody for two complaints
The other complaint is brought by a former film assistant who accuses Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault in 2014.
According to The Western Mailthis woman, aged 24 at the time of the events and who also wishes to remain anonymous, filed a complaint on January 9, denouncing “obscene remarks” made by Gérard Depardieu during meetings in his private mansion in Paris.
She also accuses him of having sexually assaulted her and of having made sexual propositions to her during the filming in Maine-et-Loire of the film The Magician and the Siamese” by Jean-Pierre Mocky in March 2014.
The complainant spoke to the regional newspaper “ his hands all over [son] body ” and the ” indecent words » from the actor on the set.
The French cinema giant has also been indicted since 2020 for rape and sexual assault on a young actress, Charlotte Arnould.
The actress Hélène Darras had also filed a complaint against him for sexual assault during filming in 2007, but it was closed by the Paris prosecutor’s office for prescription.
Another complaint in Spain
In SpainGérard Depardieu, who played “Cyrano de Bergerac”, is also the target of a complaint from the journalist and writer Ruth Baza, who accuses him of having raped her in 1995.
In total, around twenty women testified in the press or in court.
“ Never, ever have I abused a woman “, for his part affirmed the 75-year-old actor in an open letter published in October 2023 in Le Figaroreferring to Charlotte Arnould’s accusations.
These investigations come at a time when the world of cinema is experiencing an explosion, shaken by a succession of accusations of sexual violence, from actresses, but also from actors.
After Gérard Depardieu, the filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon are the target of an investigation for rape of a minor, after a complaint filed by actress Judith Godrèche.
The latter has become one of the leading figures in the fight against sexual violence in the 7th art in Francefollowing in the wake of actresses Adèle Haenel and Charlotte Arnould.
Also listenDepardieu affair: can we differentiate the artist from the man?