Complément d’investigation dedicated an edifying issue to Gérard Depardieu and his relationship with women this Thursday, December 7, 2023. Several revelations are added to the complaints against the actor.
The image of Gérard Depardieu is definitively tainted. Complément d’investigation broadcast an issue on the actor’s behavior towards women, this Thursday, December 7, 2023. The investigative magazine returned to the accusations of rape and sexual assault which have targeted the actor since 2018, but also on the silence of French cinema on its behavior.
For his part, Gérard Depardieu refused to speak to the Complementary Investigation teams. In a letter to Le Figaro, published in October 2023, the actor denies the accusations against him and assures that he has “never abused a woman”.
The issue of Additional Investigation opens with uplifting images. While traveling in North Korea in 2018, Gérard Depardieu made many inappropriate and obscene remarks aimed at women: “Women love to ride horses, their clits rub against the pommel of the saddle… It’s big sluts” (sic), we can hear during the documentary.
His translator will notably be repeatedly subjected to vulgar and explicit comments from the septuagenarian actor, who says he has “a beam in his pants”. Other obscene remarks are made by the actor, facing the camera, in a film which was ultimately never broadcast.
Subsequently, Complément d’investigation returns to the accusations weighing against Gérard Depardieu since 2018. Hélène Darras, actress who met him on the set of the film Disco in 2007, claims to have been sexually assaulted by the actor. “Between takes, he continues to grope me, I’m petrified,” she describes in particular. On the set, no one reacted and the actress refused to speak, for fear of being blacklisted. She finally filed a complaint against Gérard Depardieu in September 2023. But this could be time-barred.
In this issue of Complementary Investigation, a stage manager also recounts having been humiliated by the actor on the set of the film Diamond 13, when she was 23 years old. Depardieu would have said to him in front of the whole team: “you like them small and which grow in the mouth”.
Actress Sarah Brooks returned to an event that allegedly occurred on the set of the series Marseille. She accuses the actor of having sexually assaulted her in front of several people during a photo session: “Depardieu puts his hand on my back, I feel his hand going down my back, going into my shorts, and I “I hear grunting sounds at the same time. I feel his hand going into my panties. I push his hand once, he does it again directly, he pushes his hand a second time.”
A long segment of the December 7 show is devoted to the Charlotte Arnould affair, which accuses the actor of rape. This daughter of a friend of Gérard Depardieu says she suffered “unbelievable violence” during an interview with the cinema monster, on August 7, 2018. On August 13, Gérard Depardieu allegedly suggested that she come back and see him, which she she would have accepted to “tell him everything, throw everything at him”.
She then says she was raped again. She will file a complaint on August 24, 2018 for rape, but the video surveillance images entrusted by Gérard Depardieu to the police show that the young woman let herself be carried out, according to the report revealed by Complément d’investigation. Charlotte Arnould explains it by the fact that she had “no longer any control over [her] body, over [her]self”.
For his part, Gérard Depardieu would have assured the police that she consented and that she would not have put up any resistance. The complaint was dismissed, but Charlotte Arnould filed a complaint again in March 2020. At that time, the investigating judge indicted the actor for rape and sexual assault.
In the testimonies collected by Complément d’investigation, the silence of French cinema seems deafening. Several accusers assure that everyone would be aware of Gérard Depardieu’s behavior, but that it would shock no one.
The actor is also supported by certain personalities. Director Josée Dayan, who has been his friend for 26 years, assures us that “we can say anything about Gérard, except that he is a rapist, that’s impossible.” His former wife, the actress Elisabeth Guignot, also defends him in the Charlotte Arnould affair: “he did not rape her, she consented, what is the problem?” she asks. She assures that she does not believe any accusation and that, in the case of Charlotte Arnould, it would be revenge for not having obtained a role. Producer Alain Depardieu, the actor’s brother, assures that “Gérard is not like that” and refuses to believe the accusations.
Already in the past, Gérard Depardieu had caused a scandal over comments he had made on the subject of rape. Further investigation attempted to disentangle fact from fiction regarding an interview which caused controversy in 1990, when he was nominated for an Oscar for best actor for his role in Cyrano de Bergerac.
The American journalist from the Times, hired to paint his portrait before the ceremony, wanted to return to an interview published in 1978, in which Depardieu spoke about his youth. He reportedly said he was involved in rapes from the age of 9: “I’ve had plenty of rapes, too many to count.”
When the American journalist from the Times interviewed him 12 years later, she assured that the actor would have confirmed his statements, ensuring that “there was nothing extraordinary about it”. These comments caused a scandal in the United States and would have cost the actor not only the prestigious award, but also his American career. Gérard Depardieu accuses the journalist of having deliberately mistranslated his remarks, which she denies. His agent believes that “it was clumsy to say that, but he never raped anyone.” For his part, Alain Depardieu believes that his brother would have “invented this story of rape to invent a character”…
