French police on Monday questioned screen legend Gérard Depardieu after two women accused him of sexual assault, his lawyer confirmed, adding that the actor was later released. The Paris prosecutor's office said Depardieu would face trial over the allegations in October.
French media had reported earlier that Depardieu was in police custody for questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets.
The 75-year-old actor was ordered to appear before a criminal court in October to face charges of sexual assault, the Paris prosecutor's office said.
"Gérard Depardieu was given a summons to appear before the criminal court. He will be tried in October 2024 for sexual assaults likely to have been committed in September 2021 to the detriment of two victims, on the set of the film 'The Green Shutters'," said a statement.
Earlier Monday, Depardieu was detained for questioning for several hours at a police station in the 14th district of Paris. His lawyer, Christian Saint-Palais, later declined to comment to reporters other than to say that the actor was no longer in custody.
A lawyer for one of the alleged victims did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
A giant of French film, Depardieu has made more than 200 films and television series.
He was charged with rape in 2020 and was forced to put his career on hold last autumn as allegations of sexual harassment and assault mounted against him. He denies any wrongdoing.
In an open letter last October, he said: "I have never, ever abused a woman."
Sex assault allegations
BFMTV and Le Parisien reported that Monday's police summons relates to accusations of sexual assault filed by two women who accuse him of groping during filming – one in 2014, the other in 2021.
The first woman accuses him of having assaulted her when she was a member of the crew on the 2022 feature film "The Green Shutters".
The set designer, who filed a formal complaint in February, told investigative website Mediapart that Depardieu grabbed her as she left the set in a private hotel in Paris.
She alleged he groped her "waist and stomach, moving up to (her) breasts" and made obscene comments before his bodyguards removed him.
The woman's lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, declined to provide AFP with further details.
Another woman who worked on the "Green Shutters" set has also accused the actor of sexual violence.
A third woman has alleged Depardieu groped her "all over" and made "inappropriate" remarks while she was an assistant on the set of 2015 film "Le magician et le Siamois" ("The Magician and the Siamese"), she told regional newspaper Le Courrier de l'Ouest.
Depardieu will not face charges over those claims because the statute of limitations had expired, her lawyer said.
'Salacious nonsense'
Depardieu was long seen as a national icon in France. He has been a global ambassador for French cinema and enjoyed international fame with several roles in Hollywood.
The actor had long made headlines for antics such as socialising with the leaders of Russia and Belarus, obtaining a Russian passport to protest against a planned tax hike in France, and delaying a 2011 flight after urinating into a bottle that overflowed.
But debate over whether to show his films intensified at the end of last year after a television report showed the actor repeatedly making obscene comments in the presence of a female interpreter during a 2018 trip to North Korea.
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His wax sculpture was hurriedly removed from the Musee Grevin waxwork museum in Paris and Canada's Quebec region stripped him of its top honour.
Actor Anouk Grinberg, a co-star to Depardieu on "The Green Shutters", has described how she and others on set were "treated to his salacious nonsense from morning to night".
"When film producers hire Depardieu on a film, they know they are hiring an aggressor," she told AFP.
Grinberg said producers of "The Green Shutters" had supposedly appointed someone to deal with harassment issues but that she did nothing.
MeToo reckoning
French cinema has in recent months been rocked by allegations that it has shrugged off sexism and sexual abuse for decades.
Depardieu's case has exposed a major split in French cinema and wider society, with some defending his right to "presumption of innocence" and others supporting his accusers.
President Emmanuel Macron sparked an outcry in December when he defended the "immense actor" as innocent until proven guilty and insinuated he was the victim of a "manhunt".
Macron later added that he should have emphasised the importance of women speaking up.
Actor Judith Godreche, 52, has become a leading voice in France's #MeToo movement after accusing two film directors of abusing her as an underage teenager.
Speaking in the upper house of parliament in February, she urged the authorities to reform the French cinema industry to protect young actresses from sexual violence.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
