Icon of French cinema, world star in the same way as Alain Delon or Brigitte Bardot, Gérard Depardieu has long benefited from leniency, including after his indictment for rape, in 2020, following a complaint from a actress then aged around twenty, Charlotte Arnould.
But since a new complaint for sexual assault, and the distribution of the magazine Complément d’investigation on Thursday December 7 on France 2 showing images of the actor making sexual and sexist remarks during a trip to North Korea in 2018, several personalities from the world of cinema spoke out, such as Anouk Grimberg, Nathalie Baye and even the director Fabien Onteniente.
“He didn’t wait until he was in Korea to be so vulgar, so rude, so aggressive with women”testified actress Anouk Grinberg about the actor, indicted for rape and sexual assault since 2020.
“Everyone who worked with Depardieu knows that he attacks women,” the actress already said in an interview with the magazine She published on Thursday October 12, in which she denounced a “deafening silence” from the world of cinema.
“Never, ever, have I abused a woman”
At the beginning of October, Depardieu responded to the accusations by publishing an open letter, in which he denied the facts of which he is accused. The actor denounced a “lynching” orchestrated by the “media court” and assured to be“neither rapist nor predator”. “Never, ever, have I abused a woman,” he wrote.
“When he says (…) that he has never attacked a woman, I saw him do it all this time,” answers Anouk Grinberg in She, talking about the 1990s, when she was the partner of Bertrand Blier, and the filming with Depardieu of thank you lifereleased in 1991.
“I saw him put his hands on women’s buttocks, touch their breasts, their genitals while joking. I heard him talk all day about their pussy, how he would like to suck them all day and no one never said anything”, remembers Anouk Grinberg, who has known the actor for 30 years.
“We were all disturbed, even us his lawyers”
“If Gérard Depardieu is the monster she describes, this abominable guy, why did she film ‘The Green Shutters’ with him a year and a half ago?”wondered on the set of C à vous, Béatrice Geissmann Achille, Gérard Depardieu’s lawyer after the statements of actress Anouck Grinberg. “We must not be inconsistent”, “you can’t want a role with Gérard Depardieu, shoot this role and then perform it as she does now”.
After the broadcast of images by Complément d’investigation filmed in Korea on France 2 last week, “We were all disturbed, even us his lawyers”explains Maître Christian Saint-Palais, Gérard Depardieu’s other lawyer. “We are in the register of rudeness, in allusions to sex”. But he mentions “private conversations, between two men”mentioning Yann Moix. “Let’s not say it’s sexual harassment”denounces the actor’s lawyer, “Whoever is holding the camera, I think, is pushing a little too much.”
For Béatrice Geissmann Achille, Gérard Depardieu’s second lawyer, “These are images that we should never have seen”. She mentions “a question that is perhaps generational”, “I’m not scared”, “knowing him it’s so reductive, it’s so not him”, she defends him. The lawyer also addresses the presumption of innocence which, according to her, has “broke up for a long time in France”.
“I’ll complain”announced Yann Moix to Le Figaro, accusing his producer of having given the rushes of his filming “without warning”. “If the cause of defending women is completely just, the methods are disgusting“, added the writer on the set of Touche pas à mon poste.
“It is not possible to turn a blind eye to this kind of behavior”
On December 8, the day after the broadcast of Complément d’investigation, Fabien Otoniente, the director of Discoannounced for his part that he would no longer tour with Gérard Depardieu. “I didn’t fall out of the wardrobe”he admitted on franceinfo, after learning that a second complaint for sexual assault targeted the actor, filed by Hélène Darras, actress in the film Disco, who testifies in the program “Complément d’investigation”.
“I am discovering this gentleman’s story piece by piece”recognizes Fabien Onteniente, who filmed for the first time with him in 2007, on the set of Disco. “We didn’t see it on camera”, assures the director and screenwriter. But he confides that his casting director told him: “‘How heavy it is with girls’, so I already had this echo”.
Fabien Onteniente assures that he will no longer film with Gérard Depardieu: “It’s not in my values, it’s not possible to turn a blind eye to this kind of unacceptable behavior”. The director denounces a form of silence that exists in French cinema around sexual violence, “maybe because it’s in-between”with “a lot of denial”according to him.
“I don’t know this man we’re talking about.”
The actress Nathalie Baye, friend of Gérard de Depardieu, in turn spoke on Monday December 11 on France Inter. “I never had a problem with him, absolutely never”assured the actress.
The two actors have shared the poster of several films, among others Right bank, left bank, And The Return of Martin Guerre. “We were very complicit,” says the actress . “He is someone who has always been very elegant, very kind, a golden partner to play with. I don’t know this man we are talking about.”
“Gérard, I have known him forever because he was my first partner from the very beginning of my career. I have never had a problem with him, absolutely never”testified the actress. “It’s not a matter of defending or not defending Gérard. I don’t want to get into the media fray”explains the actress.
Nathalie Baye and Gérard Depardieu are very close. The actress admits that he was able to make heavy jokes, but “people who make rather heavy jokes, there are half of France, even three quarters”, estimates the actress. Nathalie Baye repeats it “never never” she hasn’t seen or heard any on set “sordid, vulgar things”. She has not had recent contact with him. However, he doesn’t live very far from her home. “I don’t know what state he is in.”confides Nathalie Baye, “This story upsets me.”
Mandatory training against gender-based and sexual violence
Gérard Depardieu had to put his career on hiatus at the end of October, refusing to lend his voice to the next animated film by Michel Hazanavicius, the director of The Artist. And he was excluded from the promotion ofUmami, last spring. With 50,000 admissions, the film was a dismal failure.
“We are all a little guilty” recognized on France 2 the president of the cinema producers’ union, Marc Missonnier. “There was a tolerance (with regard to Depardieu) which is an error.”
France Télévisions, a manager of which judged that it was no longer necessary “celebrate” Depardieu, however, was careful not to censor the works of a major figure in the national cinematographic heritage. The public television group clarified its position to AFP on Monday: “films with Gérard Depardieu will continue to be purchased and broadcast”including several “masterpieces”. Lost illusionsby Xavier Giannoli, will be broadcast on Sunday on France 2.
“A lot of people don’t care.” : beyond the Depardieu affair, the fight against sexual violence concerns the entire world of cinema, estimates the 50/50 collective, which works in favor of parity, equality and diversity in cinema and audiovisual, at the forefront of the subject of sexual violence in the cinema industry.
Co-president of this collective founded five years ago, Clémentine Charlemaine welcomes the announcement on Monday by the National Center for Cinematography (CNC) and Afdas, responsible for training in the sector, of compulsory training against violence sexist and sexual for all professionals in the 7th art.