Anouk Grinberg: “When a producer hires Depardieu, he knows he is hiring an aggressor”

Anouk Grinberg, one of the actresses who decided to break “the silence” around sexual assault in the seventh art, returns to the filming of the film The Green Shutters (2022), after which a member of the team filed a complaint for sexual assault against Gérard Depardieu.

She, who has known the actor for a long time, and attracted the wrath of his lawyers by evoking his behavior on this shoot, also supports Charlotte Arnould, whose accusations in 2018 earned Depardieu an indictment for rape since 2020. She is now calling on other actresses to speak out.

How was the filming of Les Volets vertes (2022) by Jean Becker? What people saw in “Complément d’investigation” (on Depardieu), it’s pretty much soft compared to what I saw on Les Volets verts, and I’m not the only one, we We've all seen it, we've all heard it. From morning to evening, we were entitled to his salaceries. On Les shutters vertes, there was apparently a lady responsible for preventing attacks. She was never introduced to me, (...) she never gave her support to women who were attacked. She never intervened when we heard about pussy, pussy, cock, getting sucked.

A decorator of the film filed a complaint for sexual assault, another also denounced an assault. When film producers hire Depardieu on a film, they know that they are hiring an attacker. Not a potential attacker. An attacker. Jean Becker dares to say in the newspapers that my comments are scandalous and that obviously if Depardieu had acted badly, he would have spoken to him about it between men. Let's go ! He knew very well that two women had been seriously assaulted. It is to cover their cowardice, their inability to protect women that Jean Becker and the producers of the film accuse me of lying.

You have known Gérard Depardieu for a long time. Has his behavior evolved on set? I've always heard him make sexual, serious remarks, but yes it has gotten very, very seriously worse, with the permission of the profession which pays him for that, and which covers up his crimes.

How is the omerta that you denounce in cinema explained? On certain films with Depardieu, we told the team before filming: “If there is the slightest problem, you keep quiet. If you speak out, you’re fired.” It's effective. People are afraid for their apple, afraid of losing their job, and afraid of not being believed.

Other renowned actresses have filmed with Gérard Depardieu. Why are you the only one to denounce this sexual violence so strongly? It's a matter of self-awareness and empathy. It's their business. But of course I would like a lot more women to speak out, because a lot of women know.

Legends of French cinema like Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert have filmed with Gérard Depardieu and Benoît Jacquot. Do you want them to speak? It's not in my hard drive to understand how we can remain silent in the face of the suffering of others, so I can't understand them. But the little I can understand is that they work for their parish, they defend their image. Would it damage their image to contribute to the truth? I think it's very desirable, the truth.

Do you observe a change in the world of cinema? It's not changing like that (but) listening has started to happen, that's already good. The director Philippe Garrel is the only man to have agreed to take a step, to think and to ask for forgiveness (he was questioned by actresses for attempts at non-consensual kisses in particular, Editor's note). It's not nothing. In this way, he participates in this revolution. (...) The others, who are in denial, participate in this stench.

You admitted to having been at one time "complicit" in these attacks. What makes you not anymore? I changed my life. (...). After being demolished by (director Bertrand) Blier (her ex-husband, Editor's note) and his cinema, I spent ten years away from that, and during these ten years I didn't do anything, I thought . Afterwards, there are very important encounters which allow us to be revealed to ourselves, to have access to our truth (...). Six years ago I met Charlotte Arnould, who at that time was very, very alone, completely devastated by what she had just suffered.

Have you yourself suffered such attacks? Of course I have had to suffer attacks and I have been trained to consider them as normal, not only to be able to function in the profession but quite simply to be able to function in the life. When you are a woman, you have understood that being attacked is part of life. This is what is changing.