The French film star Gérard Depardieu admitted grabbing a feminine colleague by the hips and insulting her skilled skills however denied accusations of sexual assault, as he testified in courtroom on Tuesday for the primary time since numerous ladies have filed police complaints towards him.
Accusations towards Mr. Depardieu have mounted for the reason that #MeToo motion arrived within the nation and articles criticizing his conduct began appearing within the French press. Not less than six ladies have filed complaints with the police accusing Mr. Depardieu of rape, sexual harassment and assault. He has constantly denied all the costs.
In a Paris courtroom on Tuesday, he confronted one in all two ladies who’ve accused him of sexual assault on this case. Amélie, a set decorator who has been recognized solely by her first title, has accused Mr. Depardieu of groping her on the set of “Les Volets Verts,” a 2022 movie they each labored on. The actor stated he grabbed her to maintain from slipping and to make sure she may hear him. If discovered responsible, he faces as much as 5 years of jail and a wonderful of 75,000 euros, about $81,000.
Mr. Depardieu is amongst France’s most well-known actors, starring in over 230 films and profitable dozens of awards and accolades, pushed partially by his unfiltered character and bawdy humorousness. For many, the courtroom case towards him looks like an indication of the progress that #MeToo has lastly made within the nation, where it met much resistance.
Sitting on a particular cube-like stool that he introduced with him for the trial, Mr. Depardieu instructed the courtroom that his fame had been ruined by a motion that he stated was “changing into a terror” and that painted him unjustly. “It’s been three years since I’ve labored,” stated Mr. Depardieu, 76.
Of their testimony, Mr. Depardieu and Amélie painted very completely different footage of what occurred.
Amélie, 54, instructed the courtroom that she had been engaged on the movie set in 2021 and that Mr. Depardieu was sitting on his cube-stool within the corridor and loudly making bawdy statements in between his takes.
“It’s so sizzling, I can’t get an erection,” she alleged he stated at one level. Amélie additionally accused him of claiming, “I could make a lady orgasm with out touching her.”
After an preliminary interplay with him over a parasol she was in search of, the decorator stated she had tried to keep away from the actor however needed to move him to depart the constructing on the finish of her day. She stated he referred to as her over, grabbed her by the waist, hauled her towards him after which clamped his legs round her.
Amélie stated she had felt trapped and terrified as he ran his palms round her buttocks and groin, after which as much as her chest, saying, “Come contact my parasol.”
“I used to be petrified,” she stated in courtroom. Later, what stayed along with her, she added, was that “he sensed my worry.”
“I noticed his eyes gentle up,” she stated. “He loved scaring me.”
A colleague suggested her to go to the police, however she stated she had not needed to trigger the filming to cease abruptly. As a substitute, she completed the movie, after which fell right into a psychological fog and despair, unable to work for about two years, she stated.
Amélie went to the police final yr, after listening to in regards to the case of one other girl, Charlotte Arnould, who had accused Mr. Depardieu of rape in 2018. (Mr. Depardieu has denied the accusation however the investigation into the accusations is ongoing.)
“To close up was to be complicit to that,” she stated in courtroom, “and I couldn’t be complicit.”
Mr. Depardieu supplied a really completely different model of his interplay with Amélie that was typically exhausting to comply with.
The actor stated it had been sizzling on the set on the finish of a protracted week and he had been in a foul mood and screaming for a fan. He stated he had typically shouted vulgarities to get the set shifting, however they have been “not addressed to her.”
Mr. Depardieu stated he had been aggravated by the set decorator as a result of the room the place the shoot was subsequent purported to occur was not well-prepared and it was already late.
“You must know if you wish to do flea market stuff or if you wish to be knowledgeable decorator. Who do you assume you might be?” he recalled telling her. Later, he stated, “I discovered the work sucked.”
The actor stated he had grabbed her by the hips so as “to not slip” and likewise to carry her nearer so he wouldn’t need to yell. He stated he had reprimanded her, however by no means, at any second, trapped her along with his legs or touched her sexual physique components.
“I don’t see why I’d wish to grope a lady,” he stated. “I’m not somebody who rubs himself towards others on the subway.”
Mr. Depardieu stated that he had weighed 150 kilograms and wouldn’t have been capable of seize Amélie between his thighs “with the stomach I had.”
The trial will proceed on Wednesday.
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