Lille: a hundred demonstrators delay a show by Gérard Depardieu

"Casse-toi": a hundred demonstrators, mostly women, delayed Wednesday evening in Lille, at the call of feminist collectives, access to a performance of the French actor Gérard Depardieu as part of his tour “Depardieu sings Barbara”.

Massed in front of the Sébastopol theater, in the center of Lille, the demonstrators responded to a call from various Lille feminist collectives, after the recent revelations by Médiapart of 13 new testimonies of sexist and sexual violence, which would have been committed by the actor on eleven filming between 2004 and 2022.

A few minutes before the scheduled start of the show, at 8 p.m., the demonstrators were still blocking the access of the spectators shouting "You are not ashamed", or "You are financing a rapist". The theater then opened a new access, while the police arrived on the scene. "This demonstration is completely unjustified because until proven otherwise Depardieu has not been convicted for anything, so it's only suspicion," said Annick Picquet, 58, in the queue. “Victim we believe you, aggressor we see you”, chanted the demonstrators in particular.

"We have the opportunity to demonstrate against the impunity of people who for a long time considered that being predators on women at work was something normal and who risked absolutely nothing", developed for AFP a demonstrators, Isabelle Loriot 60 professor of history and civic education. "We find it indecent that Gérard Depardieu is there, that he sings Barbara, as a woman and a trade unionist we had to be there", explained Victoria Saltarelli, 62, retired from national education, holding a sign "The artist and the sexual predator are the same person".

Mediapart recently revealed that thirteen women accuse actor Gérard Depardieu of sexual violence, already indicted for suspicion of rape and sexual assault on actress Charlotte Arnould. The Paris prosecutor's office told AFP on Wednesday April 12 that it had "not received any new complaints to date". He specified that the investigation opened in July 2020 following the complaint of an actress, Charlotte Arnould, was continuing.

The 74-year-old actor "formally denies all the charges likely to fall under criminal law", for his part told Mediapart the law firm Temime, responsible for defending him. The Lille performance was the first since the article in Mediapart, as part of a tour conducted since 2017 by the actor in tribute to the great late French performer, Barbara.