Gérard Darmon has never had his tongue in his pocket. For his fans, this is part of his charm, but it also earns him strong enmities. No one has forgotten the wave of hateful messages that had earned the 74-year-old actor his duel with journalist Edwy Plenel, founder of Mediapartwhose investigative methods he had criticized on the set of We are live on France 2. On the other hand, the actor, who will soon be on the boards of the Edouard VII theater alongside Clotilde Coureau, Élodie Navarre and Max Boublil in the play A delicate situationjust got back in Gala on a lesser-known episode, which marked him deeply.
“I have the greatest contempt for haters”
In April 2021, Gérard had published on his account instagram a photo of him, his face painted black. This was an image taken on the set of an episode of the hit series Captain Marleau, in which his character was to play Othello in Shakespeare’s play, Othello or the Moor of Venice. A post which, to his surprise, led him to be accused of racism by unleashed Internet users, accusing him of having indulged in blackface, an act which consists of making up his skin to darken it in order to look like to a real or fictional person and to caricature an ethnic origin.
Darmon may have removed this snapshot from his account very quickly, but the damage was done. The messages started raining down on Twitter. “Um sorry? Gérard Darmon publishes this photo without pressure on his instagram. “It’s not going well!”, “I barely wake up, open Twitter and see Darmon actor whom I adore, sporting a blackface in order to embody Othello. No matter the reasons and the sympathy you can inspire, a blackface remains a blackface”. The actor tried to defend himself, arguing that big names like Sir Lawrence Olivier or Orson Welles also made up their faces to interpret Othello, this did not convince his prosecutors. But Gérard Darmon wants to be a philosopher: “You shouldn’t let yourself be taken in by the haters and I have the greatest contempt for those who practice this sport. I took it for my rank”.
See also: Gérard Darmon settles accounts with Marc Lavoine: “He must have something to blame himself for…”
FL