The same “modus operandi” suffered on many sets, inappropriate remarks and gestures likely to be qualified as sexual assault. In an investigation published on Tuesday April 11, Mediapart reports the testimony of thirteen women claiming to have been victims of actor Gérard Depardieu, on the set of eleven films or series released between 2004 and 2022 or in external locations.
The 74-year-old French film star has already been indicted since December 2020 for rape and sexual assault, following the complaint of actress Charlotte Arnould. The young woman accuses the actor of having raped her at the latter’s Parisian home, in a private mansion in the 6th arrondissement of the capital.
Three of the women confiding in Mediapart would have brought their testimony to justice, but none filed a complaint. In question, advances the investigation site, the feeling that their word would weigh little against that of Gérard Depardieu, as well as the fear of the consequences on the rest of their career of any public denunciation.
Over the stories transcribed by the online media, the same “modus operandi” is described. Whether they are actresses, make-up artists or technicians, thirteen women claim to have suffered a hand in their panties, on their crotch, on their buttocks or on their chest; obscene sexual remarks, too, sometimes insistent grunting. And the same response from some witnesses when some dared to complain: “Oh it’s okay, it’s Gerard!” »
“I understood that he was not playing his character”
Asked by Mediapart, Gérard Depardieu did not wish to meet the journalists or answer their written questions. Through the voice of his lawyers, within the firm Temime, the septuagenarian “formally denies all the accusations likely to fall under criminal law”. During his hearings as part of the judicial inquiry, the actor had already denied being “a predator”. He described himself as a gentleman who loved “courtship”, “opposed to all forms of violence, whether verbal, physical or psychological” and “extremely modest” on sexual matters.
Among the testimonies reported by Mediapart, is that of Lyla (her first name has been changed), 24 years old at the time, extra in 2014 on the film Big House (2015), directed by Jean-Emmanuel Godart, in which Gérard Depardieu plays owner of a brothel. “Without warning, Gerard Depardieu put his hand under my dress, I felt his fingers trying to sneak up to reach my panties,” she told the investigative site. Uncomfortable, she says she “pushed his hand away.” “But he kept going, he got aggressive, he tried to pull my panties off and finger me: I realized he wasn’t playing his character. If I hadn’t stopped him, he would have succeeded,” she says.
A few years after the shooting, Lyla had consulted a lawyer, but she had not gone further, thinking that the facts were prescribed. In March, after the interview given to Mediapart, she decided to transmit her testimony to French justice, “to help Charlotte Arnould”: “I want to do my part as a woman in the same sector and refuse to be part of the problem allowing such behavior by remaining silent. »
