Feminists and politicians on the left have reacted angrily after the French president described the actor Gérard Depardieu – who is under formal investigation for rape and facing fresh scrutiny over sexist comments – as the target of a “manhunt”.
“You will never see me participate in a manhunt … hate that type of thing,” Emmanuel Macron told the broadcaster France 5, when asked about the possibility of stripping Depardieu of a state award after a documentary showed footage of sexist and inappropriate behaviour by the star.
Speaking on Wednesday evening, Macron said: “I’m a great admirer of Gérard Depardieu; he’s an immense actor … a genius of his art. He has made France known across the whole world. And, I say this as president and as a citizen, he makes France proud.”
Critics on Thursday condemned his remarks as “despicable”, with one opposition politician calling Macron “the promoter-in-chief of rape culture”.
Several key figures in film and television have said they will not work with Depardieu again after the documentary, Depardieu: The Fall of an Ogre, ran on the public service channel France 2 earlier this month.
It showed footage of Depardieu on a trip to North Korea in 2018 to mark the secretive state’s 70th anniversary. The actor, who had travelled to Pyongyang with a TV crew and knew he was being filmed, made obscene comments to women, and about women, repeatedly sexually harassed a female translator, and made sexual comments about a child at an equestrian centre who was riding a horse.
The documentary also interviewed the actor Charlotte Arnould, who went to the police five years ago accusing Depardieu of rape and sexual assault on two occasions at his home in Paris in 2018, when she was 22 and Depardieu, a friend of her father, was 70. Depardieu was placed under formal investigation for alleged rape and sexual assault in the case in December 2020. The investigation is continuing; Depardieu’s lawyers have denied all allegations against him.
Rima Abdul Malak, the culture minister, has said Depardieu had shamed France with his comments about women and girls in the documentary. She said a disciplinary procedure was in place to remove his state award, the Legion of Honour.
However, Macron, in his television interview, said: “You don’t strip someone of a Legion of Honour based on a report.” He said the award, the most prestigious the government can give and which Depardieu received in 1996, “is not a moral tool”. The judicial process should take its course, the president said, adding that it was important that Depardieu be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
But the president’s comments about being proud of Depardieu sparked outrage on the left and among lawyers and rights’ campaigners.
François Hollande, the former Socialist president, told France Inter radio: “No, we are not proud of Gérard Depardieu, when, while looking at a young girl of 12 years old riding a horse, he sexualises her.” Hollande said that Macron, who has said one of his priorities was to end violence against women, should not have made the comments and should have spoken about women, rather than Depardieu’s status as an actor.
Anne-Cécile Mailfert, the president of France’s Foundation for Women, said Macron’s comments were “disgraceful, despicable and of another era”. She told BFMTV the president had shown no respect for women who spoke out against powerful men. He had been deliberately trying to create a diversion from the political row about his new immigration law, she said.
Sophie Bussière, a spokesperson for the Green party, called Macron “the promotor in chief of rape culture”.
Yael Mellul, the founder of the organisation Femme et libre, said Macron’s comments were “extremely serious” and sent a message of “massive support” to a man under formal investigation for rape. As such, she said, they risked having a negative impact on women speaking out against men.
Depardieu, one of France’s most famous actors, has appeared in more than 170 films and gained international fame with English-language roles.
In an open letter to Le Figaro in October, the actor denied all allegations, saying any encounter with Arnould had been consensual. He said he was the victim of a lynching orchestrated by a “media court”, and wrote: “Never, ever have I abused a woman.”
