A new professional in the film sector accuses the French actor Gérard Depardieu of sexual harassment on the set of filming, already pointed out previously by thirteen other women, although he has not filed a complaint for fear of labor reprisals.
The testimony of this new victim, published this Monday by the public channel FranceInfo, corresponds to an assistant director who worked twice with Depardieu.
The woman points out inappropriate comments in front of the rest of the team, sexual propositions (even paid) and touching, but also an incident in which the actor showed her his genitals and blocked her in a corridor.
“He dropped his pants and showed me his sex. I got scared and got out of the room as best I could. He caught up with me in the hallway, pinned me against the wall, but his stomach blocked everything, so I couldn’t do anything,” said the victim.
The young woman shared her testimony with other members of the team, who confirmed to FranceInfo both their discomfort during filming and having heard the account of these attacks at the end of filming.
Depardieu had already been accused of sexual harassment on the set of different productions between 2004 and 2022 by 13 other women, who entrusted their story to the investigative journalistic portal Médiapart last April.
These accusations were added to a judicial investigation against Depardieu for an alleged rape in 2018, opened as a result of a complaint filed by the actress Charlotte Arnould.
Of thirteen testimonies (some of them anonymous and others under pseudonyms) published by Médiapart, three alleged victims had already provided their testimony to the Justice, but without presenting complaints.
Faced with these accusations, the lawyers for the protagonist of films such as Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), who was one of the best-known faces in French cinema worldwide for years, deny “any criminal conduct”.
Along with accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior, this actor from the Asterix and Obelix saga (1999-2012), who is currently 74 years old, has also made headlines in recent years for his controversial political positions.
In 2013, he adopted Russian nationality in protest of the fiscal policies of then-president François Hollande, a socialist, and regularly praised Vladimir Putin’s Russia as “a great democracy.” However, he has spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine.
