A French investigative information web site claims that actor Gérard Depardieu has been accused of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting 13 younger girls, primarily extras.
Many of the claims reported by the Mediapart web site relate to movie shoots between 2004 and 2022.
Not one of the girls has filed a grievance. Depardieu himself has denied any legal behaviour.
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Depardieu, 74, is amongst France’s most well-known stars. He was positioned beneath investigation in December 2020 for rape and sexual assault, reportedly at his Paris residence, following claims by an actress in 2018. The investigation is ongoing.
Mediapart, which is thought to be a dependable web site, revealed the accusations in an article on Tuesday (Wednesday in Australia). They feed into the long-standing stereotype of an business filled with soiled secrets and techniques the place silence is golden.
The incidents allegedly befell in public locations, primarily on movie units.
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In a Manhattan cabaret for the filming of the 2015 film Huge Home, Depardieu allegedly tried to fondle three non-French extras. One in all them, then aged 24, recounted to Mediapart, “I felt his fingers attempting to slide in to get to my knickers.”
The wardrobe assistant for the 2015 film Huge Home, Isabel Butel, informed Mediapart of her shock on the response on set. “It was form of ‘Oh that is Gérard, he is a bit mischievous!'” she was quoted as saying.
One other further, recognized as Hélène Darras, then 26, went to the police final yr, 14 years after Depardieu allegedly stored grabbing her buttocks throughout filming of the 2008 comedy Disco. Darras stayed silent on the time, not desirous to “make an enemy of casting administrators.” She ultimately gave her account to police as a result of “the movie world is stuffed with Gérards and we’ve to talk up,” she stated.
These interviewed, be they actresses, location assistants or others, stated they complained about Depardieu’s vulgar remarks, groans and straying palms however drew solely silence, or laughs, from others.
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“Individuals are afraid,” Mediapart quoted one casting director as saying. She stated her colleagues and mates unanimously reacted to her determination to speak to Mediapart by saying, “Are you loopy?”
Attorneys for Depardieu, from the regulation agency Temime, “formally deny all allegations that (may) concern legal regulation,” Mediapart wrote, and known as the allegations a “veritable indictment” to which the actor has no intention of responding.
Depardieu, who has appeared in 200 movies over six many years, is one in all only some French actors who’ve made a reputation for themselves in Hollywood. He gained a Golden Globe for his efficiency in Inexperienced Card, a 1990 English-language romantic comedy co-starring Andie MacDowell.
Depardieu’s first large hit in France was Les Valseuses, (Going Locations), Bertrand Blier’s traditional farce about two wandering thugs.
Earlier than crossing the Atlantic to star in Inexperienced Card, Depardieu performed an array of roles, starting from Jean Valjean, the thief-turned-saint in Les Misérables, to Christopher Columbus.
In 2014, he performed the main function in Welcome to New York, the movie impressed by the lifetime of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the previous director of the Worldwide Financial Fund who was accused in 2011 of sexually assaulting a lodge maid. The costs in opposition to Strauss-Kahn had been later dropped.
Help is obtainable from the Nationwide Sexual Assault, Home Household Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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