The teams that worked with him on A friend are formal: there was “no incident” on the set of Gérard Depardieu’s latest film. However, the 74-year-old actor did not promote the feature film, released on May 17. In question, a legal case. One of the big names in French cinema has been indicted for three years on suspicion of rape and sexual assault on actress Charlotte Arnould. Since then, while the septuagenarian formally denies “all the charges”, the case has rebounded, with several other testimonies. 20 minutes takes stock of the Depardieu affair.
More than a dozen testimonials
It all starts with a complaint. In 2018, Charlotte Arnould claims to have been raped twice by Gérard Depardieu, at the actor’s Parisian home. Her father being a friend of Gérard Depardieu, the young actress has known this great name of French cinema since childhood. “He held me in his arms when I was a baby. There was a trust and an esteem, “said the actress at the microphone of BFM TV a few days ago. Aged 22 at the time of the events, Charlotte Arnould filed a complaint. A year after being heard, his complaint was first dismissed by the courts.
But the Paris prosecutor’s office finally decided to entrust the investigation to an investigating judge. Since 2020, the actor has been indicted for “rape” and “sexual assault”, a legal act confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal in March 2022.
A little over a month ago, other testimonies, collected by Mediapart, lend weight to the accusation of the first complainant. Thirteen women accuse the star of sexual violence, in particular on the set of 11 films, between 2004 and 2022.
“I felt great relief when the testimonials were published in Mediapart,” commented Charlotte Arnould at the end of April. “Officially, I am no longer alone! It’s sad to come to this, but it also gives weight to my story and my case. The actress, now 27, hopes that “some (women) will be ready to file a complaint”. According to Médiapart, three women gave their testimony to justice, but none filed a complaint. The septuagenarian denies all the accusations en bloc.
Feminist collectives on the alert
For four years, the popularity of Gérard Depardieu seems to have kept him away from any media and popular opprobrium, despite the seriousness of the accusations. But the influx of testimonies now seems to be catching up. On the initiative of the collective “NousToutes Rhône”, the demonstrators are called upon to take out their “most beautiful signs” to disrupt the arrival of the actor, who is to perform in concert on Saturday May 27 at La Bouse du Travail. “Lyon Insurrection”, another collective, calls for a concert of saucepans.
On April 19, a hundred demonstrators disrupted a performance of the actor in Lille, with explicit slogans: “Break off” and by challenging the spectators: “You are not ashamed” or even “You are financing a rapist”, for the actor’s first show since the publication of the Médiapart survey.
A worrying precedent across the Atlantic
Back in 1991. Gérard Depardieu is then very close to a consecration in Hollywood. The French cinema giant is in the running for the Oscar for best actor with his performance in Cyrano de Bergerac. Time magazine then emerges an interview of the actor, dating from 1977, and totally gone to the ace. As the story goes Le Figarothe young actor is interviewed by Film Comment, an American magazine, while shooting the film Prepare your handkerchiefs Bertrand Blier.
“It was my friend Jackie who took me on my first rape. One thing leading to another, and presto! “, then comments the actor, who explains that he was 9 years old at the time of the facts. “After that, I had lots of rapes, too many to count,” says Depardieu. Revived in 1991, he admits to having participated in rapes. At the time fiercely defended by the power, the actor will plead a translation error when he returns to this episode, in 2004. The complete recording of the time remains untraceable.