French actor Gerard Depardieu is facing a fresh accusation of sexual assault.
The film star is accused of the assault by a movie decorator who alleges he groped her during filming in 2021.
In the complaint to the Paris prosecutor's office, she accuses the 75-year-old of sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults, said her lawyer, Carine Durrieu Diebolt.
The 53-year-old decorator alleges that Depardieu grabbed her and kneaded her waist, stomach and breasts during filming for Les Volets Verts, which translates as The Green Shutters, the lawyer said.
Other people intervened to stop the alleged assault, her lawyer claimed.
Two lawyers for Depardieu did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment by the Associated Press news agency.
The actor was handed preliminary rape and sexual assault charges in 2020 following allegations from actress Charlotte Arnould. Ms Durrieu Diebolt is also representing Arnould in that case.
Depardieu, who made his name in hit films such as Green Card and The Last Metro, has also been accused by more than a dozen other women of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting them.
He denies wrongdoing. In an open letter published in a French newspaper in October, he said: “A woman came to my house for the first time, walking lightly, going up to my room of her own free will.
"She says today that she was raped there. She came back a second time. There has never been any coercion, violence or protest between us."
Ms Durrieu Diebolt said that the statement was traumatic for her client and led her to file a lawsuit against him.
Depardieu was one of the leading celebrities who faced sexual harassment and assault claims as part of the #MeToo movement.
The star, who has made more than 180 films, was nominated for an Oscar for his title role in 1990’s Cyrano de Bergerac and won a Golden Globe best comedy actor award in 1991 for box office hit Green Card.
