French actor Gerard Depardieu has gone on trial accused of sexually assaulting two women on a film set, placing the global star at the centre of a case seen as a potential watershed for the #MeToo movement in France.
Depardieu is accused of groping a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director during filming in 2021 of Les Volets Verts [The Green Shutters] and faces up to five years in prison along with a €75,000 (£62,000) fine if convicted.
In a case seen as a potential watershed for the #MeToo movement in France, it marks the first time the 76-year-old, one of the country’s most prominent film actors, has been accused of misconduct publicly or in formal complaints by more than 20 women, but so far only the sexual assault case has proceeded to court. Depardieu has always denied all the allegations against him.
In an open letter published in Le Figaro in October 2023, Depardieu wrote: “Never, but never, have I abused a woman.”
“He has obviously denied it from the beginning,” Depardieu’s lawyer, Jeremie Assous, told French radio RMC on Monday morning. “Like any person facing trial, he has the right to speak. He will finally speak.”
Depardieu – who told the judges he was prepared to answer the court’s questions – said on the first day of his trial in Paris on Monday: “The truth will be obvious and the truth is on our side.”
Mr Assous told journalists massed outside the courtroom: “We will be able to show in an impartial, objective and incontestable manner that all of the accusations are lies.”
Prosecutors allege Depardieu trapped the set dresser with his legs before groping her waist and breasts in front of witnesses. She says the actor also used obscene language and had to be pulled away by bodyguards.
The assistant director says Depardieu groped her both on set and in the street. The women, who have not waived their anonymity and so are not being identified, sat side by side in court.
The case has placed one of France’s best-known film stars at the heart of the country’s reckoning over allegations of sexual violence, which comes in the wake of the mass rape case involving Gisele Pelicot at the end of last year.
Depardieu’s trial is seen as a potential watershed for the #MeToo movement in France. While Hollywood saw powerful men fall swiftly and publicly, the French film industry was slower to respond.
The sexual assault trial that opened on Monday was initially scheduled for October, but then postponed because of Depardieu’s health. The actor has undergone a quadruple heart bypass and has diabetes, according to his lawyer. A court-appointed medical expert determined that he is fit to stand trial, but recommended that the hearings do not exceed six hours, with a 15-minute pause and snack every three hours.
Depardieu grasped his lawyer’s shoulder as he strode calmly into the courtroom. The trial is expected to last at least two days, but could be extended beyond Tuesday if the chief judge wants more time, with a verdict then expected at a later date.
The first hours of Monday’s hearing were largely taken up by Depardieu’s lawyer. The plaintiffs’ lawyers were expected to lay out their evidence later.
Carine Durrieu Diebolt, the lawyer for one of the two plaintiffs, said on France Info radio that her client “is calmly awaiting the outcome of the case … because the case is solid”.
Durrieu Diebolt said that four additional women who say they have been sexually assaulted by Depardieu will speak at the trial.
Campaigners for women’s rights demonstrated outside the courthouse. A dozen performed a choreographed dance to techno music.
Actresses Charlotte Arnould, who has accused Depardieu of raping her in 2018 when she was 22, and Anouk Grinberg, who played alongside Depardieu in Les Volets Verts and has publicly criticised him, were among those present in the courtroom to follow the proceedings.
Last year, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Depardieu should face trial over Arnould’s complaint. Depardieu has denied any wrongdoing. It is now up to an investigative judge to say if there will be a trial over those allegations.
