Film star Depardieu demands a postponement of the trial due to health problems

Published on: 28/10/2024 – 09:31

2 minutes

The trial against Depardieu for allegedly sexually assaulting two women during a film shoot begins this Monday, with numerous new complaints and a possible second trial already looming.

Depardieu, 75, was expected to appear at the criminal court hearing from 1.30pm, but his lawyer Jeremy Assous has said he will be absent for health reasons and will ask for a postponement.

Assous said on French radio on Monday morning that his client will not be present but “wants the truth to come out”.

“(Depardieu) is extremely affected and unfortunately his doctors have banned him from attending the hearing. Therefore, he will ask for a postponement to a later date so that he can be present,” Assous explained.

The actor is the most prominent figure to face accusations in the French film version of the #MeToo movement, which was sparked in 2017 by accusations against American producer Harvey Weinstein.

The names of the two women who accuse Depardieu of abuse during a 2021 film shoot have not been made public.

‘False accusations’

One of the plaintiffs — a longtime clothing maker who is now 55 years old — reported in February that she was the victim of sexual abuse, sexual harassment and sexist insults while filming “Les Volet Verts” (“The Green Shutters”) director Jean Becker in a private house in Paris. .

“I expect that the justice system will be the same for everyone and that Mr. Depardieu will not receive special treatment just because he is an artist,” the plaintiff’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, told reporters.

The second plaintiff in Monday’s case – an assistant director on the same film – also alleges sexual assault.

Assous said Depardieu’s defense would provide “witnesses and evidence showing that he is simply the target of false accusations.”

He accused one of the plaintiffs of trying to “make money” by claiming €30,000 in damages.

‘Hiring an attacker’

Anouk Grinberg, an actor who appeared in “The Green Shutters”, has said that Depardieu had used “lascivious words … from morning to night”.

“When producers hired Depardieu to work on a film, they knew they were hiring an attacker,” she added.

Grinberg said that in her experience Depardieu had “always used sexual, dirty language” – but that his behavior had become “much, much worse, with the permission of his profession, which pays him for it and covers up his transgressions”.

About twenty women have now accused Depardieu of various sexual offenses.

Actor Charlotte Arnould was the first to file a criminal complaint.

A judge has yet to rule on a request from prosecutors in August to put Depardieu on trial for rape and sexual abuse.

An investigation is also underway in Paris after a former production assistant accused Depardieu of sexual assault in 2014.

“Never, ever, have I abused a woman,” Depardieu wrote in an open letter in the conservative daily Le Figaro last October.

Weeks later, President Emmanuel Macron shocked feminists by complaining of a “manhunt” for Depardieu, whom he called a “towering actor” who “makes France proud.”

Macron’s comments followed the broadcast by an investigative TV program of a recording in which Depardieu repeatedly made misogynistic and insulting comments about women.