After Gérard Depardieu, Benoît Jacquot, Jacques Doillon and – unfortunately – many others, Édouard Baer joins the list of big names in French cinema accused of sexual violence…
A joint investigation by Mediapart newspaper and female podcast Cheek reveals in fact, this Thursday, May 23, 2024, having collected the testimonies of six women accusing the actor of “acts of harassment and sexual assault over a period spanning from 2013 to 2021”.
All aged around twenty at the time of the events, they say they crossed paths with the actor-director “in the media in which he worked or in the theater”. However, to date, none of his six wives has yet filed a complaint against Édouard Baer, specifies Mediapart.
Overwhelming testimonies
Raphaëlle (the first names have obviously been changed), a young woman now 26 years old, says for example that the actor spoke to her about her nipple before grabbing one of her breasts in an elevator. Elsa, also 26 years old, remembers having to free herself three times from the embraces of a clearly tipsy Édouard Baer.
Emma also allegedly pushed him away when he tried to kiss her in a toilet. She would have told him “But it’s not okay, throw away your pork!” “, to which he allegedly replied: “I’m not a pig, I’m an old satyr! “.
A perceptible discomfort
These accusations could, according to the authors of the investigation, explain the actor’s discomfort when, on May 12, while he was questioned on France 2 about the #MeToo movement, he appeared “confused, frowning, stammering and getting bogged down; he, the improvisation pro, suddenly seemed destabilized.”
Thus, when Laurent Delahousse mentioned “the climate of suspicion” which currently reigns, Édouard Baer declared that it was “terrible because the fact of no longer going through the courts means that any word would be good to say […] Before, the words of men were dominant and today, there is a sort of inversion, before there is a rebalancing.”
Our “MeToo cinema” file
Contacted by Mediapart and Cheek, the actor said he discovered the testimonies with shock and sadness. “I do not recognize myself in the words or gestures attributed to me, but I can only express my regret that my behavior made these women uncomfortable or hurt. I apologize to them all.”