Issued on: 28.10.2024 – 09:31

2 minutes

Depardieu’s trial for allegedly sexually assaulting two women during a shoot begins Monday, with numerous additional complaints and a possible second court case already pending.

Depardieu, 75, was expected to appear at the criminal court hearing from 1.30pm, but his lawyer Jeremie Assous said he would be absent for health reasons and would ask for an adjournment.

Speaking on French radio this morning, Assous said his client will not be presentbut “he wants the truth to come out.”

“(Depardieu) is extremely affected and unfortunately his doctors have forbidden him to attend the hearing, which is why he will ask for an adjournment to a later date so that he can appear,” Assous explained.

The actor is the most famous character to face charges in the French film version of the film The #MeToo movementtriggered in 2017 by the allegations against the American producer Harvey Weinstein.

The names of the two women who accuse Depardieu of abuse during a 2021 shoot have not been released.

“False Accusations”

One of the plaintiffs — a now 55-year-old stage set — reported in February that she suffered sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist slurs while filming director Jean Becker’s “Les Volet Verts” (“Green Shutters”) in a private house in Paris.

“I expect that the justice system will be the same for everyone and that Mr. Depardieu will not receive special treatment just because he is an artist,” the plaintiff’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, told journalists.

The second plaintiff in Monday’s case — an assistant director on the same film — also alleges sexual violence.

Assous said Depardieu’s defense would provide “witnesses and evidence to show that he was simply targeted by false accusations.”

He accused one of the claimants of trying to “make money” by claiming compensation of €30,000.

“Hiring a Bully”

Anouk Grinberg, an actor who appeared in “The Green Shutters,” said Depardieu used “word salads … from morning to night.”

“When the producers hired Depardieu to work on a film, they knew they were hiring a bully,” she added.

Grinberg said that, in her experience, Depardieu had “always used dirty, sexual language” – but that his behavior had become “much, much worse, with the permission of his profession, which pays him for it and covers his crimes”.

Around 20 women have now accused Depardieu of various sexual offences.

Actor Charlotte Arnould was the first to file a criminal complaint.

A judge has yet to rule on prosecutors’ request in August that Depardieu be tried for raping and sexually assaulting her.

An investigation is also underway in Paris, after a former production assistant accused Depardieu of a sexual assault in 2014.

“I have never, ever, abused a woman,” Depardieu wrote in an open letter published in the conservative daily Le Figaro last October.

Weeks later, President Emmanuel Macron shocked feminists by complaining of a “manhunt” targeting Depardieuwhom he called a “towering actor” who “does France proud”.

Macron’s comments followed an investigative TV show airing a recording of Depardieu making repeated misogynistic and offensive remarks about women.