Gérard Depardieuwill appear in court on Tuesday to hear the verdict in his trial for allegedly sexually assaulting two women during a film shoot in 2021.
Depardieu, 76, is thehighest-profile figurein the French film industry to face allegations of sexual assault since the #MeToo movement. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (£63,000).
Depardieu is charged with the sexual assault of a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director during the shooting of the feature film Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) in Paris in 2021. He denied all the charges, telling the court he had been “dragged through the mud by calumny and lies”.
Depardieu is accused of trapping theset decorator, identified only as Amélie, between his legs on the film set and grabbing her buttocks, pubis and chest. She said he grabbed and trapped her with force, used obscene language and had to be pulled off her.
Amélie told the Paris criminal court: “It was the fact that he knew I was afraid – I saw his eyes light up with a kind of pleasure in making someone afraid. I remember that savagery. He really terrified me, and that amused him.”
She said that at the time of the attack she had been working on set trying to track down parasols for the film. “That’s where I understood the strength he had, he held me very, very hard,” she told the court. “I remember his eyes, I saw this big face, red eyes, very angry, very agitated. And he was saying: ‘Come touch my big parasol,’ with a crazy look.”
Depardieu is also accused of sexually assaulting anassistant director, who has not been named in the media. She told the court Depardieu touched her buttocks and breasts on three occasions.
Depardieu admitted in court that he sometimes used vulgar language on set, such as shouting “Dick! Pussy!”. He said this was simply “like saying wee wee poo poo for a child”. He denied sexual assault.
The state prosecutor Laurent Guytold the trialthat Depardieu should be found guilty, denouncing what he called the actor’s “total denial and failure to question himself”.
Guy said the attack on the set dresser was an “indisputable” sexual assault with three witnesses. He said Depardieu’s grabbing of the assistant director was also sexual assault and crew members were made aware of the incidents at the time.
The women’s lawyers described Depardieu, who has made more than 200 films and TV series, as a “sexual predator”. They said he was an “all-powerful” star who deliberately targeted junior women.
“Everyone knew,” said a 30-year-old actor who was called as a witness. She said that during her first role, aged 20, in the Netflix series Marseille, Depardieu suddenly put his hand inside her shorts and underwear, against her skin. She pushed him away and he did it again, she said. When she protested, he said: “What? I thought you wanted to succeed in cinema,” the court heard.
Depardieu told the trial that the media had used allegations against him to damage his reputation. He attacked the#MeToo movementas well as the women who had held protest placards outside a concert tour he was on at the time of the allegations. “This movement is going to become a terror,” he said.
The actor’s lawyer, Jérémie Assous, said the two complainants were lying and part of a conspiracy to “bring down” a great man. “Today, being charged with sexual assault has an atomic effect; it neutralises you, kills you socially,” Assous said.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has requested Depardieu face a further trial for rape and sexual assault in a separate case brought by the actor Charlotte Arnould, but no date has been set.
In an open letter to Le Figaro in 2023, Depardieu denied the allegations, saying any encounter with Arnould had been consensual.