PARIS (AP)– A French investigative news site declares that star Gérard Depardieu has actually been implicated of harassing, searching or sexually attacking 13 girls, generally additionals.
The majority of the claims reported by the Mediapart site connect to movie shoots in between 2004 and 2022.
None of the ladies has actually submitted a grievance. Depardieu himself has actually rejected any criminal habits.
Depardieu, 74, is amongst France’s a lot of widely known stars. He was positioned under examination in December 2020 for rape and sexual attack, apparently at his Paris house, following claims by a starlet in 2018. The examination is continuous.
Mediapart, which is considered a trusted site, released the allegations in a post on Tuesday. They feed into the enduring stereotype of a market filled with unclean tricks where silence is golden.
The events presumably happened in public locations, generally on movie sets.
In a Manhattan cabaret for the recording of the 2015 film “Big House,” Depardieu supposedly attempted to fondle 3 non-French additionals. Among them, then aged 24, stated to Mediapart, “I felt his fingers attempting to insinuate to get to my knickers.”
The closet assistant for the 2015 film “Big House,” Isabel Butel, informed Mediapart of her shock at the response on set. “It was sort of ‘Oh that’s Gérard, he’s a bit naughty!'” she was estimated as stating.
Another additional, recognized as Hélène Darras, then 26, went to the authorities in 2015, 14 years after Depardieu supposedly kept getting her butts throughout shooting of the 2008 funny “Disco.” Darras remained quiet at the time, not wishing to “make an opponent of casting directors.” She ultimately offered her account to authorities since “the movie world has lots of Gérards and we need to speak out,” she stated.
Those spoken with, be they starlets, place assistants or others, stated they grumbled about Depardieu’s repulsive remarks, groans and wandering off hands however drew just silence, or laughs, from others.
“People hesitate,” Mediapart priced estimate one casting director as stating. She stated her associates and buddies all responded to her choice to speak with Mediapart by stating, “Are you insane?”
Legal representatives for Depardieu, from the law office Temime, “officially reject all accusations that (might) issue criminal law,” Mediapart composed, and called the accusations a “genuine indictment” to which the star has no intent of reacting.
Depardieu, who has actually appeared in 200 movies over 6 years, is among just a couple of French stars who have actually gone far on their own in Hollywood. He won a Golden Globe for his efficiency in “Green Card,” a 1990 English-language romantic funny co-starring Andie MacDowell.
Depardieu’s very first success in France was “Les Valseuses,” (“Going Places”), Bertrand Blier’s traditional farce about 2 roaming criminals.
Prior to crossing the Atlantic to star in “Green Card,” Depardieu played a range of functions, varying from Jean Valjean, the thief-turned-saint in “Les Misérables,” to Christopher Columbus.
In 2014, he played the leading function in “Welcome to New York,” the movie influenced by the life of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the previous director of the International Monetary Fund who was implicated in 2011 of sexually attacking a hotel housemaid. The charges versus Strauss-Kahn were later on dropped.