French actor Depardieu goes on trial on sexual assault charges

PARIS — French actor Gerard Depardieu went on trial at a Paris court on Monday charged with sexually assaulting two women during a 2021 film shoot, as his lawyer vowed to show all the accusations were "false".

Depardieu, 76, who has acted in more than 200 films and television series, has been accused of improper behaviour by around 20 women but this is the first case to come to trial.

He is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema's response to the #MeToo movement.

Depardieu, dressed in a dark suit with no tie, sat on a stool facing the court as the trial got underway in the early afternoon.

He slowly made his way to the witness stand, wincing as he walked, to confirm his identity. The two plaintiffs were also present in the courtroom.

The trial relates to charges of sexual assault during the filming in 2021 of "Les Volets Verts" ("The Green Shutters") by director Jean Becker.

Anouk Grinberg, a prominent actor who appeared in the film, has backed the two plaintiffs -- a set dresser, 54, and a 34-year-old assistant director. Both women allege sexual violence.

Grinberg said that Depardieu had constantly made "salacious remarks" during shooting, and told AFP that producers who hired him knew they were "hiring an abuser".

Depardieu's lawyer, Jeremie Assous, told AFP just before the hearing started that he would show "in an impartial, objective and undeniable manner that all the accusations are false".

Feminist activists protested outside the courtroom before the trial started.

The defendant's younger daughter, Roxane Depardieu, and her mother, Depardieu's ex-partner Karine Silla, as well as actor Fanny Ardant were among the film star's supporters inside the courtroom.

Ardant then left the room after the defence team cited her as a witness.

Breaks whenever he 'needs'-

The trial, initially scheduled to take place in October 2024, had been postponed due to the actor's ill health.

Assous said back then that Depardieu had undergone a heart bypass operation and suffered from diabetes that was aggravated by the stress of the forthcoming trial.

According to Assous, Depardieu's court appearances will be limited to six hours a day and he will take breaks whenever he "needs".

One of Depardieu's two accusers, the 54-year-old set dresser called Amelie, reported in February last year that she had suffered sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults during filming in September 2021.

She told French investigative website Mediapart that Depardieu boasted he could "give women an orgasm without touching them" and that an hour later Depardieu "brutally grabbed" her.

The actor pinned her by "closing his legs" around her before groping her waist and her stomach, continuing up to her breasts, she added.

She said Depardieu made "obscene remarks".

She described the actor's bodyguards dragging him away as he shouted: "We'll see each other again, my dear."

'Manhunt'

The second plaintiff, the 34-year-old assistant director, alleges the actor groped her "breasts and bum" in August 2021, according to Mediapart.

Overall, around 20 women have accused Depardieu of improper behaviour, but several cases have been dropped due to the statute of limitations.

French actor Charlotte Arnould was the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Depardieu, in 2018.

Last August, the Paris prosecutor's office requested a trial for rape and sexual assault, accusations the famous actor has consistently denied over the years.

"Never, but never, have I abused a woman," Depardieu wrote in an open letter to the conservative daily Le Figaro.

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

Depardieu is no stranger to scandal, having made headlines for brawling, drink driving and urinating in the aisle of a plane.

A 2023 French television documentary called "The Fall of the Ogre" showed the actor on a 2018 trip to North Korea repeatedly making explicit sexual comments in front of a female interpreter and appearing to sexualise a small girl riding a horse.