Gérard Depardieu is the target of three complaints for sexual assault or rape. But the actor is also at the heart of a controversy caused by his misogynistic and insulting remarks towards women, even a little girl. Government spokesperson Olivier Véran said this Thursday he was “shocked” by the declarations of the sacred monster of French cinema.
“These comments shock me and I have a thought for the people who felt offended, who are victims,” declared the government spokesperson on BFMTV and RMC. “I am shocked by the comments I saw, which I find null,” he added, regarding the statements reported in a report on the France 2 program “Complément d’investigation”. Emmanuel Macron, for his part, supported Gérard Depardieu at the end of December, saying that he was a “huge actor” who “makes France proud” and denouncing “a manhunt”.
Avalanche of reactions and counter-tribune
The Head of State had also considered that the Legion of Honor was an Order which is “not there to preach morality”, while his Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak had announced on the same channel a few days earlier that a “disciplinary procedure” would be initiated by the Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honor against the actor. She judged that Gérard Depardieu’s remarks were “shameful to France”.
Olivier Véran also noted that “when the courts are seized, it is up to them to decide, not to you and not to me. We are not a people’s court.” The Depardieu affair has generated countless reactions. A column calling for “not to erase” the icon of French cinema, published on Christmas Day in the Figaroat the initiative of an actor described in an investigation by World as “close to identity and reactionary spheres”, in return gave rise to several “counter-tribunes”, including one signed by some 8,000 artists.
Sexualization of a child on horseback
Several personalities have since distanced themselves, including Carole Bouquet (former companion of the actor), Nadine Trintignant and Gérard Darmon, with the first platform. In the images of the report, Gérard Depardieu, known for having played Cyrano de Bergerac, multiplies the misogynistic and insulting remarks while addressing women, not sparing a little girl with remarks of a sexual nature.
The France Télévisions group assured that this last passage had been “authenticated” by a bailiff, after the head of state had suggested that the sequence could have been modified during editing, as the family had previously claimed of the actor.