The French actor Gérard Depardieu sexually assaulted an assistant director on three occasions while she was working with him on a film shoot, placing his hands on her buttocks and breasts, leaving her feeling “petrified”, the woman told Paris’s criminal court on Tuesday.
Depardieu – the biggest French cinema star to face trial for sexual assault since the #MeToo movement – is charged with sexually assaulting the assistant director three times during the shooting of the feature film Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) in Paris in 2021.
He is also on trial for the sexual assault of a set decorator on the same film, who alleged he gripped her hard between his legs while grabbing her body. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (£63,000) if convicted of the offences.
Depardieu denies any wrongdoing, telling the court this week: “I deny all of it.”
The woman employed as third assistant film director has not been named in the media. She was tasked with accompanying Depardieu from his dressing room on to the set during the filming.
She told the court a first sexual assault happened during a night-shoot in Paris, when she found herself alone with Depardieu at the end of a short road where his dressing room was located as they walked towards an outdoor set.
She said she felt his hand on her buttock. “It happened by surprise, I was shocked. I didn’t know how to react … I carried on as if nothing had happened, kept walking to the set. I had a knot in my stomach.”
She said the second assault happened at a later date on a set inside a Paris apartment, where Depardieu blocked her against a door and put his two hands on her breasts. She told the court: “I said no. I was scared.” She said that on a third occasion Depardieu put his hand on her buttocks and she again said: “No.”
The assistant director told the court that before this, Depardieu “talked about sex all day on set, constantly talking of ‘pussy’ to everyone”. She said: “He listens a lot, observes everyone, listens to everything and uses it later to humiliate everyone. At the time, I was having a difficult separation. I’d spoken to someone about it, so he mocked me for it. There were lewd comments, humiliations; it was an unhealthy environment.”
She said she felt ashamed of what Depardieu had done and did not want to speak out because she wanted to continue working on the film and handle the situation herself. But when her direct superior asked how she was getting on with Depardieu, she told her all that had happened.
The assistant director said that, after this, Depardieu shouted at her that she was a “snitch” and he was “odious” to her on set, calling her “crazy”.
She said Depardieu later said “sorry” to her in an angry way in front of other crew members. She said Depardieu said he did not want her coming to collect him from his dressing room any longer.
She said: “On the set I felt huge anxiety, stress, shame, guilt; it was very difficult.”
Asked by the head judge what she wanted from the trial, the assistant director said: “I want us to hear the truth and stop minimising what happened.”
Depardieu denied sexual assault. “I did not touch her buttocks, I did not touch her breasts, I did none of that,” he said.
He told the court: “I’m not like that. I can’t be like that….. I’ve never of my own will touched a buttock like that, even furtively. It wouldn’t cross my mind.”
Asked by the complainant’s lawyer about the allegations of touching the woman’s buttocks he said: “I didn’t sexually assault. A sexual assault is more serious than that I think.”
Asked to clarify, he said he didn’t know what sexual assault was.
”He said that at the time, he couldn’t walk 150 metres in the street on his own, because of his health, weight and joint troubles. He said he was almost always accompanied by a bodyguard or aides on the film set, and was never alone with an assistant director.
Depardieu said of the assistant director: “I think that maybe, I don’t know, she was wary because of my reputation of being vulgar, crude, rude,” Depardieu said. “But I’m not only that. I still respect people.”
He said he was not someone “who touches people”.
He said that he had later asked the production to make sure it was a man who collected him from his dressing room instead of a woman because he always made lewd comments in his dressing room and didn’t want women to be shocked if they overheard them.
He said: “I’m crude and vulgar. I say things that can shock young people. He told the court that on a previous film he’d said: ‘Bring me a man who’s not shocked by my language,’ and ‘Stop putting in girls who are shocked by what I say.’”
He denied shouting at the assistant director.
The trial continues.
Source: theguardian.com
