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French actor Gérard Depardieu is once again under the spotlight. Thirteen women have accused him of committing acts of sexual violence, including touching, obscene phrases and insistent growling, during the filming of 11 films between 2004 and 2022. The testimonies, revealed on Tuesday by the investigative media Mediapart, described a modus operandi Similar from the actor and highlight the lack of reaction from the filming crews, who most of the time ignore the facts or minimize the behavior of one of the best-known figures in French cinema. Depardieu, who denies all the accusations, had already been charged with sexual assault in 2020 after a complaint by a young actress.
The women who have given their testimonies (some anonymous, others not) to the French investigative medium are actresses, make-up artists, technicians, extras, scholarship holders. All have described similar behaviors during filming. One hand on the crotch, on the buttocks or chest. Phrases of a sexual nature and totally out of place and, sometimes, insistent grunts and snorts a few inches from them. According to the testimonies collected by Mediapart, these acts were committed in full view of all, with no desire to hide. The statements also point to laughter or complacency from the production teams.
“He put his hand under the dress”
“Without prior warning, Gérard Depardieu put his hand under my dress, he felt his fingers trying to reach my panties,” an extra told the French medium, on condition of anonymity. The events they describe take place in New York, in December 2014, during the filming of the film big house, director Jean Emmanuel Godart. The alleged victim was 24 years old and she decided to complain to the production team, as confirmed by Isabel Butel, a wardrobe assistant present at the recordings and who also spoke to Mediapart. The dish’s reaction, she recalls, shocked her. “It was like: ‘Oh, it’s Gérard, he’s a bit provocative,’” she says, adding that “everyone” saw the discomfort.
The investigative medium, which began collecting testimonies in February 2021, has indicated that nine of the 20 filmmakers and producers contacted have not responded. The other 11 affirm that they have not been informed of inappropriate behavior during filming or that they do not remember or see this type of act. Only one of them, the filmmaker disk (2008) year grass (2013), Fabien Onteniente, has said that he had been alerted by a director of foundry that Depardieu “was heavy with the girls.” When two extras went to see him directly to complain, one of them crying, he says that he scolded the famous French actor.
The interpreter’s lawyers Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), 74 years old, have stated in a statement that their client formally denies all the allegations. The actor did not wish to answer the questions related to the accusation, “which mixes very varied topics, some of them very subjective and/or moral judgments,” according to the Parisian firm Cabinet Temime.
The investigation emphasizes the imbalance of power mentioned by women, who were mostly younger than him and were beginning to gain a foothold in the world of cinema. None of the 13 who have agreed to give their testimony has filed a formal complaint with the courts.
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