It’s difficult to remember a time when Gerard Depardieu was one of the most beloved French actors out there. He was considered one of the great French actors, loyal to French audiences but willing to do some English-language work too. But over the past few years, Gerard has had some issues. There were some arrests and drunken shenanigans. He seemed to have a profound drinking problem (he recently claimed that he drinks 14 bottles of wine a day). He also gave up his French citizenship, moving first to Belgium and then to Russia. He’s become tight with Vladimir Putin, even publicly criticizing Putin’s enemies on Putin’s behalf. The whole thing is a mess. A mess that could fill a book! Gerard has written a memoir called It Happened Like That (Ca C’est Fait Comme Ca) and it is full of…um…well, he’s lived quite a life. Some highlights from the early excerpts:
*He worked as a “rent boy” when he was just 10 years old. Depardieu claims he started performing sexual favors for cash when “he was just 10 but could easily pass for being 15… I’ve known since I was very young that I please homosexuals,” he reportedly wrote, adding that he “would ask them for money” when they approached him for sex. Later in life, he started mugging his clients. “At 20, the thug in me was alive and kicking… I would rip some of them off. I would beat up some bloke and leave with all his money.”
*He served three weeks in jail when he was 16 for stealing a car.
*He was a grave-robber – he and a partner would dig up bodies and steal the jewelry.
*His mother tried to abort him with a knitting needle: “I survived all the violence that my poor mother inflicted on herself with knitting needles and things. The third child that she didn’t want, was me, Gérard. I survived,” he says.
*He helped deliver his younger sister Catherine when he was seven years old.
[From Us Weekly & The Irish Independent]
What can I say? You’re not a “rent boy” at 10 years old, you are the victim of pedophiles (NOT homosexuals). I don’t care if they paid you – 10 years old is too young to consent. And being victimized by pedophiles is probably what made him a gay-bashing hustler at the age of 20.
To promote his book, Gerard gave an interview to The Telegraph several days ago where he basically bitched about France. I’m sure that will go over really well, dude.
The French film star, Gérard Depardieu, has said France was a “filthy mess” and at risk of becoming a parody of itself. In an interview with news magazine Le Point to mark the publication of his autobiography, Mr Depardieu said the French desperately needed a change of leadership to halt the nation’s decline under President François Hollande.
“If we continue like that, France will be a new Disney World, it will be France World, people will wear berets, and Chinese tourists will come and touch their moustaches and their big noses,” Mr Depardieu said. Explaining why he chose not to live in France, Mr Depardieu said: “I’m a free man. At the age of 65, I don’t want to pay 87 per cent tax.”
In France, he said, “people are jealous of success” and he left the country because he thought “they were going to shave my head, like a collaborator in 1945”.
Under the Socialist government, he said France had become “a small thing which people don’t talk about any more”. Mr Depardieu, who recently made the astonishing admission that he starts drinking in the morning and consumes up to 14 bottles of wine a day, said he supported Nicolas Sarkozy.
“Sarkozy made mistakes but I would say that they are like those of King David, they can be remedied,” he said. “Nevertheless I like France, the spirit of France. We invent things, look at Marie Curie or the Concorde,” he said, praising French food and wine.
Does the highest income bracket in France really get taxed 87%? Yikes. There are some other translations which have Gerard saying 75% tax, which is still really, really steep. Anyway, I don’t have an opinion of Gerard’s France-bashing. It’s not my country! But I’m sure Gerard probably has awful things to say about America too. He’s probably saving those comments for an interview with an American outlet!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Damn.
Sad.
Good lord!
Depardeiu is right about socialist government in France. Since he become president of France, Hollande destroyed prosperity and hope for the country. Lately many companies and business are living as he did.
France was prospering before Hollande was elected? I seem to remember things a bit differently.
The man clearly has issues and if what he wrote is true, they certainly couldn’t surprise anyone anymore. Damn.
No France was, as are a lot of countries in crise before Holland. But, socialists were the harsher on him when he fled the country that mostly paid his bills so he wouldn’t have to pay his taxes. In fact, a member of Holland gouvernment said that french nationality should be taken away from someone that relocate only to evade taxes. And by the way, the maximum one could have to paye is 46%, and that include national insurance contribution ( For a good health care for every one, think super obama care), and national pension contribution for every one (thoses are less and less great, but still better that most can find in the US).
That would certainly explain his problems with alcohol now……
And God, he was a sexy man.
I have only seen two movies with him My Father the Hero(which was great) and one with Queen Latifah(too lazy to Google).
Green Card was really cute, and Im not a rom- com kind of person. To my understanding, Cyrano was one of his best films, although i have seen it.
From : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar%C3%A8mes_de_l'imp%C3%B4t_sur_le_revenu_en_France
Up to 9 690 euros: 0 %
From 9 690 to 26 764 euros: 14 %
From 26 764 to 71 754 euros: 30 %
From 71 754 to 151 956 euros : 41 %
Above 151 956 euros : 45 %
These are not fixed brackets however. For example, if someone earns 30 000 euros per year, they’ll not be taxed on the first 9690 euros, they’ll be taxed 14% from 9690 to 26764 (17074), and so on.
The 75% tax is for revenues over 1 million euros. So someone who earns that much will see their first million taxed according to the above brackets and the rest will be for 75%. So, it’s not 75% of 1 million. It’s still a whole lot of money going to the government, but that’s how it works in very socialist states.
(From : http://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2012/article/2012/02/28/tranche-d-imposition-a-75-ce-que-signifie-la-proposition-de-m-hollande_1649139_1471069.html)
By the way, I’m not French, but it is my first language since I’m French Canadian.
Most informative obscure celebitchy comment today, for sure.
Actually, the 75% tax is a 50% tax. The last 25% are paid by companies through various social taxes. So, when someone earns over 1 million euros a year, he has to pay a 50% and his company pays the rest. It will only work this way for 2013 and 2014. It’s a VERY complicated thing to understand so this is a simplified explanation.
Thanks for posting some actual facts to counterbalance the lies that rich people tell about taxation.
One other thing that people might find interesting is that the top tax rate in the USA in 1959 — a time of great prosperity and unprecedented income fairness in our country, and hardly a time which we think of as “socialist” — was 91%! Currently, the top income bracket is 39.6%.
that’s exactly the taxes rates in France… except that for rich people if they make some kind of investment they wouldn’t be counted in their taxes payment…most of them don’t even pay 45 %….Gerard Depardieu is a horrible horrible person, his didn’t even bother supporting his late son and was extremely selfish throughout all his disease struggling and his passing… so the money grabbing trait is the very least of his flaws…
That was informative but inexacte, since the 75% tax was only a proposition that was NOT voted. Until now, the max is still 46%.
The 91% rate applied to less than 100 people in the whole country, so it can’t be used to justify high tax rates.
@JaneFR The 75% tax did pass. But, as Cleo said, it was a temporary mesure that will end at the end of 2014.
Fun fact, the companies that are most targeted by the tax are profesionnal football (soccer, if you will) teams. Like I was googling “taxe 75%” right now and most articles were from spors website.
And it’s a bit rich of Depardieu to complain about the state of France (in a very very cliché “manière”) since he doesn’t live here anymore and chose to live in Russia at the expense of Poutine. Thanks dude but we don’t need, nor want, your advice or opinion.
Nope. The 75% tax proposition for very very rich people did not pass. The so called 75% tax that did, is a 50% increase of the employers social contribution for enterprises that append to give a few salaries above 1 million a year each.
It concerned around 470 enterprises and 1000 employees.
87 % tax is ridiculous,can’t blame him for that,I would really like to know what the other brackets are like.
I’m french and I can tell you that there’s no 87% tax in France. I have no idea what he’s talking about.
You really see a man’s character when it comes to taxes. Many of them earn millions, but think they don’t have to share it with society. That’s why there are so many tax dodgers. They think they know better than the law.
@Liv: I know, Right? Morrissey, party of one.
87 % is the rate he is inventing to justify flying the country to avoid paying taxes… this rate doesn’t exist: unfair and absolutely unrealistic!
But oddly whenever he is sick he flies black to our country to benefit from our very generous medical care to which he doesn’t participate throughout taxes … and suddenly France stops from being Disneyland…
How is he able to access rights to socialized medicine if he has relinquished citizenship and does not pay taxes? Or is that what he did before officially ditching his citizenship?
@Antisocialbutterfly: he didn’t ditch the french citizenship he has dual citizenship… he spits on our country but still benefits from it!He is unfortunately still french… that’s the very hypocritical point of all of this!
Not to defend him, but I live in London and since Hollande became President of France my neighbourhood is overrun with wealthy French people who have moved to London to avoid tax. So he’s not alone.
MON DIEU – is the only thing I want to say.
Sacrebleu!
Oh, Gérard…
It is my country, but I’m not really offended. The guy is a mess! He was always a provocator, nothing wrong with that in our culture. However, he’s become much more erratic – but that’s mainly due to the death of his son, so… Hard to criticise too much, I would loose my marbles too.
Agree. If my sons died I’d want to be dead too.
@Jiji and chris: except he kind of didn’t care for his son despite the later being very vulnerable and fragile and screaming for his attention his whole life, guillaume Depardieu talked a lot about his father (many many interviews can be found on youtube and he is very critical if not bitter toward his father) and said he was a despicable , cold man that didn’t even care about the fact that he was facing death, same for Julie Depardieu she was quite eloquent about how her father is a horrible one. Actually Guillaume Depardieu had severed tied with him before dying… so the death of his son is not really an explanation…
Exactly…
Yeah, if I remember correctly, he wasn’t a part of his son’s life until his son was in his 20s and it got pretty rocky pretty quickly. I think that the final straw was when he believed that his father was indifferent towards his addictions and abandoned him when he needed him most–the scooter accident. Anyway, that’s one side of the story.
@Truthfull : While I agree he’s not been a good dad, it doesn’t mean AT ALL that he hasn’t been wrecked by his child’s death.
As far as we know he’s not a psychopath (as in lacking standard emotions, guilt, empathy). don’t be too quick to assume people are unfeeling just because they act like di***.
@Jiji: wow I didn’t assume such a thing but hey some people are clearly prompt to be easily aggressive ….
I just stated what is well known in France: he was a terribly awful father… the rest is just your assumption a your will to rant on it!
That’s probably why he drinks that much.
He’s had a hard life, and early childhood abuse often becomes adult alcoholism; to compound this, the French have such a convoluted self-defeastest POV. They criticize themselves, everything, and everyone else into holes of bottomless despair! I suppose I painted a broad brush on the French, but it’s such a nihilistic culture, Mon Dieu!
I agree. I wasn’t being ironic. I actually believe that his past actions have lots to do with his love for the bottle.
It’s probably the downside of our qualities that make us invent and perfect things in many different areas…
Coming from a country with really high taxes I really can’t blame him.. but he has become smug and very much opinionated about anything. I’m sure the french will never forgive him for ditching his home country for monetary reasons.
When Monica Bellucci moved to France back in the days in Italy she was considered a proud italian and an iconic example of italian heritage abroad. Now, many years later, when she gives inteviews for italian magazines or tv she sounds like she can’t speak her mother tongue anymore and she looks smug and above us all. I can’t stand her anymore..and many others don’t. We gladly leave her be in France. Same as Carla Bruni Sarkozy. Smug. Smug and supersmug.
*speechless*
Well if I was regularly downing 14 bottles of wine a day, I suppose my life would get alot more interesting in the retelling too… Just sayin’, if the guy is an alcoholic he is also probably full of sh*t too
^^^^
Lol yeah when i was studying in UK drank like a fish,much of the summer holidays are a blur.
I was about to say, I really hope at least part of this is the 14 bottles of wine talking. Or, how much stick can you really put into the words of a man who claims to drink 14 bottles of wine per day? Give me three glasses and I’m going to sleep.
@Jem it’s obvious that he has a drinking problem but just because he is an alcoholic doesn’t mean he is full of shit. So if someone is molested as a child and is an alcoholic as an adult does that make there recollection of it all bullshit..? I’m respectfully disagreeing with your comment.
I think the tax is 50%. My old boss was from France and he sold his vineyard. He said he didn’t mind because it paid for a lot of societal things and he didn’t have to worry about donating to society.
I am probably not remembering the quote correctly but I once heard an economist say something along the lines that in countries with high tax rates, charitable giving is lower, but in countries with lower tax rates, charitable giving was a lot higher. Our tax system in the US is messed up (mainly because of how it clearly advantages one group over others, not necessarily because of how much people are paying of what type of earnings), but we give exponentially more to charity. I’ve always been intrigued by that link.
Rich people in the US give to charity as a tax deduction. The deduction kicks in only above a certain percent of your income, so lower income people (who also often engage in non-cash charity) don’t benefit from the charitable tax deduction. Take away the tax deduction, and charitable giving in the US would zip downward pretty fast amongst the rich folk, although some do give because they feel it’s the right thing to do. But the major incentive is the tax deduction, and there are wily ways to do it so you don’t lose anything (such as by setting up your own foundations).
Back when the Reagan Administration severely cut social aid programs, private charity couldn’t make up the loss. The Chicago Tribune reported that doctors were seeing cases of kwashiorkor (protein deficiency disease) in Chicago among poor children for the first time. In Washington DC, I saw an article about a local soup kitchen set up just for children. The kids would pay a penny for the food, since they could pick up pennies on the street easily enough. These were school age kids.
Private charity is a pretty useless way to spread resources around properly. I’d much rather pay into a tax supported system for basic needs. Imagine the chaos if we had to pull out a checkbook or credit card before we could get help from the police or fire department.
You make the problem of charity sound like it’s an old one but it’s going on right now in Chicago. Adult disabled have long wait lists for day programs and respite care or residential placement (one mom finally lost it on the 10 year waiting list and basically left her kid in a restaurant south of Illinois). I have so many patients who can’t get dental care, worst decay and tooth loss I’ve ever seen, because public insurance won’t cover it. In such a rich country, it’s a freaking disgrace.
The problem with Socialism is that eventually you’ll run out of other people’s money.
I want to keep my monies!!!!
The problem with capitalism is that infinite growth is not sustainable on a finite planet.
He seems to have had a truly awful life for a long time. He sounds very unwell now, though.
What an ugly and nasty man. That knitting needle must of got him in the frontal lobe.
Wowza! Tell us how you really feel. I don’t think much of him much either but he has obviously been though some hardships as a child and losing his son as an adult. That doesn’t excuse his behaviour but I think as humans we can see and understand it more. At the end of the day the only person he is hurting is himself and his not doing terrible things to others ( that I know of), so your comment is a tad harsh. On another note, he has such bad wine bloat and doesn’t look at all healthy.
He used to be among my fav actors, so manly, so funny, so charismatic… I am very sorry about his son and all the hardships he’s endured, but he’s all but lost my respect in the last couple of years =( I also don’t know how much truth there is in his autobiography. Is he prone to inventing things for dramatic effect? I do not know. Perhaps someone has more information on this aspect of his personality?
I couldn’t drink that many bottles of water, let alone wine.
He has his demons. How many of the things he says are under the influence and therefore not only suspect but unreliable?
I don’t know: Chicken or egg? Did he have a horrendous childhood that led him to a place of overindulgence and addiction, or did his overindulgence and addiction harm braincells where he has crafted a narrative which never occurred, or that which is grossly exaggerated? Perhaps it is a combination of both, or a third option, he spins a yarn for attention, during the declining years of his stardom? I only offer these scenarios because someone more familiar with him has previously stated that he likes to stir shit up, and not always based on reality.
Hm….certainly horrible if his stories are true….but I’m not sure I entirely believe him. I mean, he is someone who likes to stir up sh!t and say shocking things….
Really, you think he would say that he performed sex acts for men at the age of 10 just for shock value? I certainly hope not, as that does a disservice to real abuse survivors. I do doubt that at 10 he could pass for 15. Maybe that’s a lie he’s telling himself to believe that the pedophiles who had sex with him really weren’t that bad.
Depardieu has always seemed like kind of a macho guy. Why would a macho guy claim to be a rent boy at ten if it wasn’t true?
Denial is a very common reception for victims of sexual abuse who come forward. This is because the images in our mind of what might have happened are too grotesque for us to comprehend, thus our natural inclination is to question the reality of what has been revealed (out of self-preservation). This is especially true in cases where the abuse is familial. However, it is very important that people who come forward with this type of trauma are received with kindness and support, and trust not doubt.
This is really just a story about the long-term effects and suffering endured by victims of sexual abuse. It often leads to alcoholism and depression, as I believe is the case with Depardieu. I’m glad he found some refuge through acting, and some of his movies are real gems, even landmarks of French Cinema. Yes, France has economic problems, like any country. But I think Depardieu uses France as an outlet for the anger he feels from his abuse.
Thank you, most reasonate comment I’ve read here !
I watched him with de Niro in Bertolucci’s ‘1900’ , lo! many, many decades ago; both young actors bound for glory. I’m pretty sure that even then it was known that Depardieu had an exceedingly salty past…..he’s always been given to self-revelation.
Whatever about who did what to whom, the ‘boorish slob’ persona wasn’t a given, when he started out. That’s somethong he made by himself, imo.
Ahem. Marie Curie was in fact polish. She married a frenchman and actually went by the name Maria Skłodowska – Curie. She kept her maiden name.
Haha, my first thought exactly! Next thing, he’ll cite Chopin.
Of course, with Depardieu it’s impossible to tell when he is – or when he isn’t – making a barbed point of some sort. I find it difficult to believe that he would’t know she was Polish.
Depardieu was a god. The way David Suchet owns the Hercule Poirot role, Depardieu owns Cyrano de Bergerac.
Vilest of men in so many ways–but I wonder if he uses the term “rent boy” rather than “victim of child sex abuse” to give himself some sense of agency? Coping mechanism?
He’s still totally ugh, though, and not in his right mind.
Gosh my French grandpa is in his 80s and looks better than he does. Gerard was never that good looking to begin with or that great an actor (sorry to his fans but I’ve never cared for him). We used to joke he was in every French movie ever made because that’s what it seemed like for a long time. The French do like to complain and criticize everything, but Gerard makes some valid pointa about Hollande. Many French people do not like him as president.
Ive seen him in many things and he’s always been amazing. Most Americans might know him from the movie Green Card where he was an odd choice for a romantic hero.
As for outing himself as a rent boy I think he is simply being matter of fact as the french like to do.
But also, I think at this point, the wine has affected his brain. But, as for his choice to pick up his money and leave I dont think he did it with pleasure……Ive known many who have done the same. France, as many other European countries, is intent on distroying itself and instituting unsustainable programs and taxation. I dont blame him for picking up his money and leaving. He is getting old. How many more roles will be coming his way.
Selma hayek and her French husband Francois Penault moved to London to avoid taxes too.. But they are rarely singled out by the media because he is so powerful.
That really doesn’t surprise. Child trafficking is far more common than people think it is, and it usually slides by unnoticed because it’s perpetrated by the very people who should be trusted. It’s a shame, and it explains a lot about his behavior.
In comparing taxes between countries, you have to add in things that are paid separately in the US. Health insurance and medical expenses not covered by insurance is a big one. Child care, education through university level, help with children who need extra attention (e.g., learning disabilities) are often subsidized at least partly by taxes for everybody elsewhere- you don’t have to be poor (which helps keep people non-poor). I have many colleagues in other countries, and they stop complaining about taxes once those of us in the US start explaining just the cost of medical insurance and medical costs in general (which are regulated in other countries so people aren’t broken by co-pays). They say they will keep their tax system, thank you very much. Child care costs are numbing for people here on the lower income scale, and mean their real takehome pay is very low. A friend figured he was working for a negative five cents per hour when he had to work on a Saturday but his wife had to be elsewhere as well. He wasn’t even breaking even. He didn’t have a choice, his job required that everybody take turns working the weekend.
There are other tax-funded safety nets in other countries as well, for example it is harder to evict people in France (long process) but very easy here with a single late rent payment. Hard on French landlords, but really helpful for families in troubled times. Other countries also have housing safety nets that we lack. People laugh at Americans relying on credit cards, but most US credit card debt is for medical expenses (at least half), prolonged unemployment periods (trying to avoid eviction or losing a house, feeding people etc.), and other emergencies. Very little is actually due to overspending on nonessentials (maybe 10%)..
This guy just doesn’t care about anything but his next drink, so the idea of sharing resources for things he doesn’t personally need is obnoxious to him.
In addition, there are some people who just lie. For no real good reason, they just do. There is such a person within my own family. Just tells lies. About her childhood. About most all of her other family members. Totally made up stuff.
It is really weird to encounter such a person. Because at first, with no reason not to, you believe them. Then comes a time when things just don’t add up. And it becomes really, really weird.
Eventually you learn that the person is known for this. People don’t even bother to confront it.