Gérard Depardieu has long been regarded as a cinematic legend, especially in his native France. He was Jean-Claude in Les Valseuses, Cyrano de Berger
Gérard Depardieu has long been regarded as a cinematic legend, especially in his native France. He was Jean-Claude in Les Valseuses, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Obélix. But Depardieu is now also a man convicted of two sexual assaults.
The Paris Criminal Court has sentenced the 76-year-old actor to an 18-month suspended prison sentence, with an additional two-year disqualification and registration in the national database of sexual offenders. His lawyer, Jérémie Assous, who announced that Depardieu would appeal his conviction, strongly criticized the court’s decision, arguing that “from the moment you are implicated today in a so-called sexual assault case, you are automatically convicted.”
Depardieu had appeared in court from March 24 to 27, looking thinner than usual and walking with difficulty. He was confronted by two complainants: Amélie, 54, a set designer, and Sarah, 34, a third assistant director (her first name was changed at her request). Both described him as a rude actor who created a hostile atmosphere on set, then slid his hands over the buttocks or breasts of these women during moments when potential witnesses were insufficient.
The assault on Amélie took place in an apartment on Avenue Mozart in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, which was being used for filming. “At this point, he’s sitting down,” explained the set designer in court. “And he closes his legs over me. He grabs me, puts his hands on me. He pinches me. He kneads in front of me, around me. That’s when I realize how strong he is. I feel that he’s very strong. I feel held. I have flashes. His big face in front of me, very angry, very excited. He says, ‘Come and touch my big parasol…’ He touched my pubis, my buttocks over my clothes. He kneaded all those parts, and when he got to my breast, that’s when I gasped, ‘My God.’ I tried to pull his hands away. He was holding me, terrifying me, looking like a madman.”
In her testimony, Sarah recalled three assaults, including one 20 days before Amélie’s that occurred in the middle of the night. At the time, the adolescent woman was the third assistant and in charge of escorting the actors from their dressing rooms to the set. “I found myself alone with Gérard Depardieu, while he always had his bodyguard or his hairdressing team.” She recounted that the two of them were crossing a tiny street to get around a square, a two-minute walk at most. “And then, out of nowhere,” she said, he put his hand on her buttocks. “It was a bit of a test, to see if he could do it or not. I didn’t say anything at the time; I was just shocked.” Although she said she felt ill to her stomach, she didn’t tell anyone, “so as not to make any trouble.” But she did text a friend: “Gérard has been touching me since yesterday.”
The actor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He claimed he wouldn’t be able to clamp Amélie between his thighs. “Besides, I can’t,” he insisted during the trial. “We can do scenes if you like. With the belly I’ve got, I can’t put anything between my thighs … I’m 76 years old, I weigh 150 kg, I’m not going to have fun putting my hand on someone’s bottom. I’m not Émile Louis.”
During his testimony, Depardieu became muddled in his explanations and appeared unconvincing. The accused actor changed his reasons for his actions and for the apologies he had offered to the two women. In police custody, Depardieu asserted that he had never touched Amélie. In court, however, he admitted to having grabbed her by the hips “so as not to fall.” But this then raised the question: Why did he apologize to her a few days after the alleged incident? Depardieu said it was because of a basic verbal exchange—he’d given her a dressing-down because she wasn’t doing her job properly. But Amélie’s reaction, and that of the film crew, “doesn’t amount to a simple shouting match,” insisted the prosecutor. Similar questions could be applied to Depardieu’s reaction to Sarah: Why did he apologize to her on the set of Les Volets Verts and tell her “I won’t come near you again”?
As he awaits the appeal process, Depardieu also remains under threat of a rape trial, following a complaint lodged by Charlotte Arnould in 2018, which was reopened in 2020 and remains under investigation. Depardieu has denied the allegation. He is also under investigation for aggravated tax fraud and money laundering, which his lawyers have denied.
Surrounded by court cases, the actor’s career appears to be in its death throes. Even so, Depardieu was spotted earlier this month in the Azores shooting the film Elle Regardait Sans Plus Rien Voir, directed by Fanny Ardant, who has remained his friend and supporter.
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