Just hours ahead of his long-anticipated trial for sexual assault charges on Monday (October 28), Gerard Depardieu’s lawyer said the French actor would not attend due to health concerns and requested a delay in the proceedings.
The 75-year-old star of Cyrano De Bergerac and Green Card was expected at a Paris courthouse after being accused of sexual assault by two women during the 2021 film shoot for Jean Becker’s The Green Shutters (Les Volets Verts), one a set designer and the other an assistant director.
The trial was meant to begin at 1:30 PM local time. Despite announcing on Friday that his client was planning to attend, the actor’s lawyer Jérémie Assous told France Info radio this morning that Depardieu is “extremely affected and unfortunately his doctors have forbid him from being present at the hearing, which is why he will ask for a postponement to a later date so that he can attend.”
The much-publicised trial has been making headlines in France leading up to Monday’s court hearing. Depardieu, who faces separate charges of rape and numerous further criminal complaints, is among the most high-profile figures in the French film industry to face both legal battles and public scrutiny in France’s #MeToo movement.
Other charges
Monday’s trial is one of several cases the actor faces. He was charged with rape in December 2020 after actress Charlotte Arnould accused him of attacking her on two separate occasions in his home in 2018 when he was 70 and she was 22. In August after a long investigation, Paris prosecutors requested that the actor stand trial, but a judge has yet to rule officially on that request.
Actress Helene Darras filed a sexual assault complaint but that was dismissed due to the statute of limitations. In April 2023, investigative journal Mediapart published testimony from 13 women accusing the actor of sexual harassment and aggression that occurred during shoots for 11 films between 2004 and 2022. Spanish writer and journalist Ruth Baza also accused Depardieu of raping her in 1995.
The actor has always defended his behaviour. “Never, but never, have I abused a woman,” Depardieu wrote in an open letter published in conservative daily Le Figaro in October last year.
Weeks later, however, there was fallout from the documentary Gerard Depardieu: The Fall Of The Ogre which aired in France on December 7 and featured footage of the actor making lewd comments to women in North Korea in 2018 and multiple accusations of sexual assault. The actor was subsequently stripped of honours in France and abroad.
In response, French president Emmanuel Macron caused a stir when he called the accusations a “manhunt” targeting Depardieu and saying the actor “makes France proud”.
French #MeToo gains momentum
The trial comes off the heels of a bombshell hearing for a mass rape trial that has sent shockwaves throughout the world in which 72-year-old Gisele Pelicot’s husband Dominique admitted to drugging his spouse and inviting dozens of strangers over the course of a decade to rape her with 50 other men set to stand trial.
It also comes amidst a fresh wave of #MeToo momentum in France that has seen several new accusations of assault within the film industry emerge and high-profile figures face legal and professional consequences.
In June, CNC director Dominique Boutonnat was forced to step down from his post after being sentenced to a three-year prison sentence by a French court for sexual assault.
Le Public Systeme’s longtime leader and Deauville artistic director Bruno Barde was ousted from his position following accusations of sexual misconduct by seven former female employees.
Most recently, French actor-writer-director Nicolas Bedos was slapped with a prison sentence for sexually assaulting two women last year.
Filmmakers Jacques Doillon and Benoit Jacquot were taken into police custody over the summer and also face charges of sexual assault by actresses.
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