Gerard Depardieu’s trial on charges of sexually assaulting two woman on a film set was yesterday postponed due to concerns about his health, shifting the start of the proceedings to March.
The criminal court in Paris ordered an expert to assess the 75-year-old French actor’s health issues. Depardieu‘s lawyer, Jeremie Assous, requested the postponement, saying that the actor has heart trouble and diabetes-related issues. Mr Assous said doctors decided the actor was not well enough to appear, though he was eager to appear in court.
“He is anxious to defend himself, because for over three years, a huge number of inaccuracies, false information and lies have been systematically disseminated and relayed,” Mr Assous said.
“Now, finally, we’re going to be able to have the word of the defense.” Depardieu, who has denied any wrongdoing, is accused of using “violence, coercion, surprise or threat” in the alleged sexual assaults that prosecutors say took place on the set of Les Volets Verts.
Lawyers for both women also argued in favor of the postponement, saying that their clients want to hear Depardieu‘s explanations. Prosecutors say that in both cases, women reported that the actor trapped them between his legs and groped their buttocks, genitals, chest and breasts through their clothes.
Outside the court, one of the plaintiffs, a 53-year-old production designer, said “it was extremely difficult to listen to all this violence“, after hearing Depardieu‘s lawyer defending his client. She said: “He questioned everything. There were a lot of lies, about almost everything actually.”
Depardieu “is a coward”, French actor Anouk Grinberg said outside the court. Grinberg, who acted in Les Volets Verts said she showed up to court “because I can’t take it anymore. It’s unbearable, this man’s violence against women. And the impunity, it’s got to stop, society can’t allow it”.
About 100 people gathered outside the court yesterday, some holding signs, responding to a call from several feminist groups to show support for victims of sexual violence. Some activists made their way into the courtroom and sat among other members of the general public attending the hearings.
Blanche Sabbah, a women’s rights activist, said: “We’re here even though Gerard Depardieu will not show up.” The plaintiffs “have showed up. They’re here and I am here to support them. That’s why all of these feminists are here.”
Prosecutors say there were witnesses on the film set. According to Paris prosecutors, one woman told investigators that she’d initially heard sexual remarks from Depardieu and then one day, as she walked past him, he had “grabbed her, pulled her toward him, blocked her with his legs, and groped her waist, hips and chest, accompanying his gestures with obscene remarks”.
Three people witnessed it, prosecutors said, confirming that the woman made an attempt to break away from Depardieu’s grip and that she seemed “shocked”. A psychiatrist examined her, and she was granted seven days leave.
After the incident, it was arranged for Depardieu to apologise. But in a TV interview aired on Saturday, the woman said the actor was furious and blamed her for causing trouble. Prosecutors said witnesses confirmed that what Depardieu had said did not constitute an apology.
In the interview with a French online news site, the production designer – who spoke on camera but only gave her first name – said the alleged assault had taken a toll on her personal and professional life for at least one and a half years. She said she could not sleep well, suffered anxiety attacks and had lost weight.
The woman, according to prosecutors, said it had taken her a while to file a complaint but she decided to do so after hearing it said on television that there had not been an incident during the shoot.
The month before the alleged assault, another woman also working on the film’s set had complained about Depardieu, Paris prosecutors said.
A director’s assistant told investigators Depardieu had touched her buttocks on several occasions. She had expressed her disapproval and, in return, Depardieu, she said, had been insulting toward her. She was also given a six-day leave of absence by a psychiatrist.
Mr Assous, Depardieu's lawyer, told a press agency in an email Saturday that “the witnesses and evidence [Depardieu] will produce will demonstrate that he is the target of false accusations”.
Despite the allegations against Depardieu, many have come out in his support, including French president Emmanuel Macron.
Late last year, 56 French performers, writers and producers published an essay defending the film star, saying that when “Gerard Depardieu is targeted this way, it is the art [of cinema] that is being attacked”.
Their call came just weeks after national broadcaster France 2 put out a documentary outlining accusations of sexual misconduct by 16 women against Depardieu, and showed the actor making obscene remarks and gestures during a 2018 trip to North Korea.
In the footage, Depardieu can be seen making groaning sounds and sexual comments in front of women, including a girl about 10 years old who is horse riding. He can also be seen posing for a photo, saying he was “touching the bottom” of a North Korean interpreter by his side.
He was charged in 2021 with rape and sexual assault after authorities revived a 2018 investigation that was initially dropped, following allegations from actor Charlotte Arnould.
In an open letter published in the conservative-leaning newspaper Le Figaro, Depardieu said last year: “I have never, ever abused a woman.”
The actor was long seen as a national icon in France. He has been a global ambassador for French film and enjoyed international fame with several roles in Hollywood.
Earlier this year, actor Judith Godreche called on France’s film industry to “face the truth” on sexual violence and physical abuse during the Cesar Awards ceremony, France’s version of the Oscars.
Godreche had previously alleged that two prominent filmmakers sexually abused her when she was a teen, shocking the industry.
More recently, the ongoing trial of 50 men accused of raping a woman who had been previously drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband shook the country. Protests spread nationwide last weekend in support of the victim, a mother and grandmother in her early seventies, who has become a hero to many victims of sexual violence for insisting that her trial be open to the public.
