Gérard Depardieu accused of sexual assault by a sixteenth woman

A sixteenth woman in turn accuses Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault. Anna (first name has been changed), cinema technician, testified on Friday July 28 at the microphone of France Inter. Thirty years old at the time of her meeting with the actor, she talks about the behavior of the latter during a shoot. The technician says that she was warned by members of her entourage of the possible inappropriate behavior of the actor. So despite the summer temperatures, Anna hides her “feminine forms” so as not to “be spotted by Gérard Depardieu”.

On the set, the actor was initially interested in other women on the team. The first is an assistant director. “With her, it was terrible, he took her on his knees, he touched her, fiddled with her on the set, he made jokes. It was first of all her who was the object of his desires, ”recalls Anna. Then, another would have caught the attention of Depardieu: "A person who has character and the bottle, but she did not escape it. One day, he pinned her against a wall on the set, uttering his Depardieu-like grunts, she couldn't free herself. Everyone saw it, he does not hide it, no one reacted. People look without looking, have pretended not to see.

Anna would not have escaped the clutches of the actor “There began a whole game. He made the set laugh by taking me to task. He started saying “I'm going to take you out to eat, I'm going to get you drunk, we're going to have a good evening”, always with grunts. He put me in the center of attention while I was working, I understood that I was in his line of sight. According to France Inter, a week later, while the team was shooting a scene outdoors and at night, the technician was in charge of a delicate camera focus. All the attention of the set is on her. “I turned my back on Gérard Depardieu to tell the assistant director that I was ready. I felt his big hand, his big hand in my crotch, grab my crotch willingly, letting out a gritty laugh. I was liquefied, petrified. It was then that he chose to humiliate me,” she explains.

This scene would have taken place in full view of an entire set made up of technicians and actors. Twenty people in total. According to Anna, no one reacted. She remembers that Depardieu “was accompanied by an actor who chuckled. My boss, I think he saw everything, he saw my face, he told me 'stay focused'”. She runs. The shooting continues. Back in her apartment, the nerves of the technician let go. She says she cried a lot and confided in her assistants. Complain? She won't even think about it. “I minimized a lot what happened to me. Until now, I haven't considered it serious enough to file a complaint. I also say to myself “how can my word be considered since everyone has seen it and everyone is silent”. Who will testify?

On December 16, 2020, Gérard Depardieu was indicted for rape and sexual assault following a complaint by actress Charlotte Arnould. In an interview granted, facing the camera to BFM, the actress denounces the omerta which surrounds the actor. “Everyone knows he behaves like that on set. No one is surprised, she denounces. There are people who make it possible. All these people who are in power are feeding the monster”. In April, thirteen women testified in a long investigation by Mediapart. All accuse the sacred monster of French cinema of sexual violence. The 74-year-old actor “formally denies all the charges that may be criminal law”.

Friday morning, France Inter collected another testimony. That of a man this time. The first. Lionel ((the first name has been changed) was a member of the technical team on the set of Vidocq. He was twenty years old, it was one of his first shoots. And Depardieu played the main role. Like Charlotte Arnould, he denounces the omerta which reigns around the actor. The technician remembers that "every time the make-up artist approached him, he touched her sex and her breasts while laughing. As it is Depardieu, everyone finds That's normal. The rest of the time it's jokes, a pornographic logorrhea based on words like 'pussy'."

Lionel describes Gérard Depardieu as a “totally mesmerizing kind of Gargantua character”. While recounting the inappropriate scenes he would have witnessed, he assumes that he did not have the courage to denounce the actor. The technician fears that he will no longer be able to work in the cinema if he were to reveal what he had seen. For Lionel, it would even be “a collective attitude that lets a lot of things pass”. He explains today that he wants to “redeem a conscience”. He also wants “other men to talk”. And concludes: "It's always easier once others have done it. If there hadn't been any female revelations, nothing would ever have happened, that's clear."