Gérard Depardieu faces fresh allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior by 13 women who spoke to French investigative news website Médiapart as part of a months-long investigation into the French film star.
The Médiapart report, published on Wednesday, details numerous cases of groping, obscene comments and inappropriate acts by Depardieu on film and TV sets between 2004 and 2022, including on the French comedy Big House, the period biopic Dumas and Netflix crime series Marseille.
Depardieu declined to comment for the story but, through his Paris-based law firm Cabinet Temime has denied any criminal behavior. The firm said some of the accounts in the Médiapart report appear to be based on “very subjective assessments and/or moral judgments.”
As reported by Médiapart, Depardieu’s behavior followed a common pattern, involving unwanted touching and groping of young actresses, make-up artists or technical staff, as well as obscene sexual remarks and “persistent groaning noises.” In most cases, the magazine reports, other crew members ignored or tolerated the actor’s behavior, often laughing it off: “Oh, it’s okay, it’s [just] Gérard!”
Médiapart said it contacted 20 producers and directors involved in the relevant productions but only 11 responded. Of those, all but one — Fabien Onteniente, director of 2008 Depardieu starrer Disco and 2013’s Turf — said they had not seen or heard anything untoward and that they had not been made aware of the alleged behavior at the time. Onteniente, however, said he had been warned by his casting director, on the set of Disco, that Depardieu was “getting heavy with the girls.” When he heard similar allegations during the shooting of Turf, he confronted the actor. “I told him: ‘Don’t start that again, it’s over! Behave yourself’,” Onteniente told the magazine.
Médiapart began what it says has been a months-long investigation, after repeatedly hearing rumors of Depardieu’s on-set behavior.
In 2018, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, French actress Charlotte Arnould brought official rape charges against Depardieu, accusing the actor, who was a close friend of her father’s, of raping and sexually assaulting her twice in his Paris mansion in the summer of 2018 after she went to him for acting advice. An attempt by Depardieu of getting the charges overturned has been overruled, and the case is currently making its way through the French courts.
This latest Médiapart expose comes after last week’s revelation that the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Ewdy Plenel, had filed a complaint against actress-director Maïwenn, accusing her of assault. The police report confirming the suit — in which Plenel says Maïwenn attacked him at a Parisian restaurant, pulling his hair and spitting in his face — was leaked the day after Cannes announced Maïwenn’s new film, the costume drama Jeanne du Barry starring Johnny Depp as King Louis XIV, would open this year’s festival.
Médiapart has not reported or investigated Maïwenn but the magazine has published several in-depth reports detailing sexual assault allegations against her ex-husband Luc Besson.
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