Gerard Depardieu, a star of France and facing sexual assault charges, testified before a court in Paris on Tuesday that he had no habit of “groping” women.
“I don’t understand why I would grope a woman, her buttocks, and breasts all at once. In his first statement at the trial, where he is accused of sexual assault on two women while filming a movie in 2021, he said, “I’m not someone who rubs himself against others on the metro.”
Depardieu responded to the accusations that he was “not like that,” adding that “there are vices that are alien to me.”
Depardieu, 76, who has appeared in more than 200 movies and television shows, is the first woman to go on trial for allegedly abusing another 20 women.
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He is the most well-known actor to be accused of being a part of French cinema’s response to the #MeToo movement.
The jury is charged with sexual assault in connection with Jean Becker’s film “Les Volets Verts” (“The Green Shutters”)’ 2021 filming.
A 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director, Anouk Grinberg, a well-known actor who appeared in the movie, have supported the two plaintiffs. Both women make allegations of sexual abuse.
Depardieu was repeatedly accused of making “salacious remarks” while filming, according to Grinberg, who claimed producers knew they were “hiring an abuser.”
Due to the actor’s poor health, the trial was originally scheduled to take place in October 2024.
His attorney claimed then that Depardieu had diabetes and had undergone a heart bypass procedure, which the stress of the upcoming trial had made them more anxious.
The 54-year-old set dresser Amelie, one of Depardieu’s two accusers, reported in February of last year that she had experienced sexual assault, harassment, and sexist insults while filming in September 2021.
She claimed Depardieu boasted to be able to “give women an orgasm without touching them” on French investigative website Mediapart and that he “brutally grabbed” her an hour later.
The actor pinned her by “closing his legs” around her, before groping her, going up to her breasts, and then closing his legs.
Depardieu, according to her, made “obscene remarks.”
