French actor Gérard Depardieu is in police custody as investigators look into two separate allegations of sexual assault by two women who worked with the controversial actor on film sets in 2014 and 2021, according to French media reports.
Depardieu, 75, has faced accusations of sexual assault from more than a dozen women since 2018, ruining his reputation as one of France’s best-known actors. Depardieu starred The man in the iron mask, The life of Pi and Green cardand was nominated for an Oscar for his leading role in 1991. Cyrano de Bergerac.
french announcer BFMTV He was the first to report on Depardieu’s arrest by the police. He was summoned to a Paris police station on Monday morning to answer questions related to a sexual assault investigation, the station learned from a police source. France-Presse Agency He later reported the same, also citing a police source.
Investigators are reportedly looking into allegations that Depardieu groped a set designer during filming. Les Volets Verts in 2021 and groped and made obscene comments toward a production assistant in 2014 on the set of The magician and the Siamese twins.
The email you need to receive the top news stories from Canada Day and around the world.
The decorator, a 53-year-old woman, filed his complaint against Depardieu on February 23, BFMTV reported at the time. She claims that she was walking down a hallway next to Depardieu, who was sitting opposite her, when the actor grabbed her with his legs like a vice and refused to let her go. He then touched her without consent and made sexual comments to her. Another person on the set had to extract the woman from Depardieu’s legs.
On January 9, the production assistant filed her sexual assault complaint, alleging that Depardieu groped her at his Paris mansion before filming for The magician and the conjoined twins began. The woman, who was 24 at the time, said Depardieu groped her again and propositioned her on the first day of filming, according to the French newspaper. Le Courrier del Oeste.
Depardieu has yet to make a public statement about the allegations, but has previously denied other allegations of sexual assault. in a open letter 2023Depardieu wrote: “I have never, ever abused a woman.”
These latest accusations come after a wave of similar accusations against Depardieu beginning in 2018, when French actress Charlotte Arnould, then 22, accused the Cyrano de Bergerac star to rape her. The case was initially dismissed, but Arnould refiled his complaint and Depardieu was charged with rape in 2020. The case is still ongoing.
A stream of women came forward after Arnould filed her complaint. In 2019, former actress Emmanuelle Debever claimed that Depardieu groped her when they were alone in a carriage on the set of the 1983 film. Danton. Debever died He committed suicide last year at age 60, the same day a television documentary about Depardieu’s sexual assault allegations aired.
In December 2023, Depardieu faced a second official complaint of sexual assault, this time from actress Hélène Darras, who claimed that Depardieu groped her on the set of the 2007 film. Disk. The case was abandoned in January by French prosecutors because it did not prescribe.
The Quebec government stripped Depardieu of his Order of Quebec award, also in December 2023, after the actor made “shocking” comments in a documentary released that month. Depardieu was filmed making obscene sexual comments and gestures while film crews covered his visit to North Korea in 2018. He is the first person to have an Order of Quebec withdrawn.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.