Perhaps I always assumed I’d be reading this headline at some point, or perhaps I thought I’d already heard this headline. French actor Gerard Depardieu has been accused of rape. The French authorities have officially opened up an investigation into Depardieu, 69, after a 22-year-old woman went to police to file a criminal complaint. She came forward and told her story to police. This happened recently too – this isn’t a story about Depardieu raping a woman ten years ago and now in the Me Too era, his victim has come forward. According to French outlets, this young woman says he sexually assaulted her twice in the past month.
Acclaimed French actor Gérard Depardieu has been accused of raping a young French actress, officials said Thursday. The Paris public prosecutor’s office is looking into allegations that the 69-year-old “Cyrano de Bergerac” star raped a 22-year-old this month in one of his Paris residences, a judicial source told Agence France Presse on Thursday. The actress was “devastated” by the alleged attack, her agent said to BFM-TV.
According to Holland-based news agency BNO News, citing French officials, an investigation was launched after a woman told police that she was raped by Depardieu on two separate occasions. Sources speaking to Le Parisien newspaper claimed that a woman went to the police in Lambesc, southern France, on Monday to file the criminal complaint, saying she been sexually assaulted at Depardieu’s home in Paris on Aug. 7 and Aug. 13 of this year. The case was then passed to prosecutors in Paris.
BNO also reported that the woman, described as an actress and dancer in her 20s, was known to Depardieu, who was giving her professional advice.
He denies the allegations “absolutely,” his lawyer Herve Temime told AFP news agency.
“I had a long meeting with Gérard Depardieu and and I am absolutely convinced his innocence will be established,” he told France Info radio.
I believe her. I would have believed her even without his lawyer’s statement. “I had a long meeting with Gérard Depardieu and and I am absolutely convinced his innocence will be established.” So glad we cleared that up, dude. Imagine if we actually handled everything that way. Woman: “I was raped.” Men: “We have consulted with each other and decided that he’s innocent.” Oh, wait. That’s exactly what happens in most cases. This young woman was very brave for coming forward and filing a criminal complaint. I hope the whole thing is investigated thoroughly.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Always heard terrible things about this man. So glad the actress had the courage to come forward and I hope she gets justice!!! It’s about time!
To be honest I thought I’d already read a story like this about him. Zero surprise.
The attitude of the French media and celebrities towards MeToo has been…questionable. Hopefully the police will surprise me.
Didn’t he serve time for rape many years ago? I could swear he did.
I think has been arrested for various other things, but not for that. Not yet anyway.
He said in a interview that he committed a lot of rapes in the past because ‘it was a rough neighborhood’ essentially.
He got really drunk, belligerent, and was arrested on a plane after peeing himself as I recall. This is really unsurprising news all the same.
Why I am not surprised at all?
My first thought – he’s been taking young actresses for decades.
Raping not taking. Even autocorrect minimizes and excuses rape.
LMAO at your ‘auto-correct’ correction !
I was an extra on the movie Marie-Antoinette by Coppola 12 years or so ago and the makeup artist had a thick bandage on her arm. I asked what had happened and she answered :” My next holiday.” When I asked what she meant, she told me Depardieu had attacked her with a broken bottle and had given her money to sign an NDA.
So yeah, he sounds a treat.
OMG. No one should be forced to work in those conditions.
Holy heck.
This is the least surprising news ever and I’m kind of surprised this is the first time he has been publically accused of sexual violence.
I’m in awe of this young actress’s bravery. Depardieu is a living legend in France, a “monstre sacré” as we say over there.
His aura has been fading rapidly though. All that stuff about rescinding his citizenship to avoid paying taxes and moving to Russia, the peeing in a plane incident and Netflix’s Marseille (seriously guys, check 15 min of it, it’s sooooooo bad), most people are now totally over him. People definitely glossed over him beating Carole Bouquet and being a raging drunk for the last 30 years or so, but the last 5 years made him less untouchable than he used to be.
I’m sure it won’t be the only rape accusation we’ll hear about this filthy pig
I’m only surprised there is only one woman with this story right now about him because I feel like he could be a Weinstein level rapist. I feel like I have been hearing stories about his horrible behavior for decades.
Good actor, absolute trash human being.
He also has weinstein level power in France. The fear of being black listed must be very real.
From Time magazine 2001:
” The ruckus stemmed from a TIME story about the French film star published in late January. Depardieu, 42, was asked about remarks he had made in an interview published in 1978 in the magazine Film Comment in which he described his rough childhood and said, “I had plenty of rapes, too many to count.” Asked by a TIME reporter if he had participated in rapes, Depardieu said yes. “But it was absolutely normal in those circumstances,” he added. “That was part of my childhood.”
That admission, not surprisingly, drew an outcry from women’s rights activists, newspaper columnists and others. Depardieu later denied making the statements and threatened a libel suit against TIME and any news organization that reprinted them. “It is perhaps accurate to say that I had sexual experiences at an early age,” the actor said in a statement. “But rape — never. I respect women too much.” The TIME interview, which was conducted in French, is on tape. The Depardieu camp contends that his words were mistranslated and that he admitted only to having witnessed rapes. TIME has refused the actor’s demand that the passage be retracted.”
We are going to be hearing from a lot more women I think.
As far as I recall, the confusion was because of the similarity between violer (to rape) and voler (to steal) – he was definitely a bad lad, but said the mistake came in the translation (he was speaking French in the interview, and it was translated by the interviewer)
True but while voler and violer look similar on paper, they sound nothing alike when spoken (vuh-lay / vee-uh-lay with heavy emphasis on the ee sound) so this is not a valid excuse whatsoever. No one who understands French (even if it’s not their first language) could make this mistake.
I think you are right, the bravery of this young woman will inspire others to come forward.
YUP. Just said this above-he’s done stuff like this before.
I am curious as to the full story, of how it happened a second time. To be clear, I am NOT saying I don’t believe her AT ALL, I am just wondering the circumstances, and why she didn’t/couldn’t report it the first time.
Sometimes rape only becomes clear after another violation. Sometimes it’s an obvious gut reaction and sometimes it takes some processing to figure out just what the hell happened. I’m glad she went to police and hopefully there is a kit with evidence to shut this shit down.
And sociopaths are generally extraordinarily gifted in the bullshit department. On top of that, he’s an actor, so I’m sure he was all smooth and debannaire (sp) when he was gas-lighting her and telling her that it wasn’t rape and he’ll be nothing but a gentleman when she comes back to his house. Vomit.
Glad you asked, I was wondering, too. How did she end up in his house a week later? That said, yeah, this story does not surprise me at all.
I was wondering the same, i wouldn’t be surprised that he did rape her, given the propensity of men his age and with his fame of taking women for granted, however twice a week apart ?
i think there is more to this story and i’ll reserve judgment until then.
Maybe he drugged her the first time and she didn’t realize what had happened til after the second time.
or he drugged her both times
or he threatened her with something and cowed her into coming back
I can think of many ways this could have happened
I think it’s a misconception that rape is always violent. She could have said no, maybe even fought back, but she also could have froze, or when it had already begun (penetration) and stopped fighting. She could have convinced herself that she hadnt fought back “enough” (whatever that means) or that she “let it happen” so it wasn’t “really ” rape. Now she may accept that it wasn’t her fault, she didn’t “ask for it” or “let it happen” and it was indeed a violation.
Not surprised. And didn’t he admit to drinking an ungodly amount of wine a day? He’s a mess. And, I’m not making light of addiction by any means.
14 bottles/day, that’s what he said if I remember correctly.
Alcohol aside isnt that way too much water to drink a day?
It is surprising how much alcohol (mainly beer) men can drink while they are not able to drown the same amount of water in that time. This is something you can perfectly observe at i.e. Octoberfest (the original thing in Munich). I know men who are unable to drink like 1 litre of water per day (!) but have no problem to drink up to 5 or 6 Mass (litres of beer) in an evening there. And those people are not alcoholics (but idiots).
Wasn’t that Andre the Giant? I saw something recently about the making of The Princess Bride and he was pounding the alcohol then (due to his shyness and chronic back problems).
He has the face of an alcoholic. I know he has a very distinct nose, but his nose currently looks like it has swelled up (like it does when someone is a chronic drinker) and his face looks red and bloated.
He’s had that face for the past 20 years.
I have no trouble believing this.
He is so discusting this is the oposite of surprising. Also this statement: “I had a long meeting with Gérard Depardieu and and I am absolutely convinced his innocence will be established,” which means not that he did not assault a woman but that they feel they hqve enough to refute the accusation.
I do believe the woman.
But what I don’t get is…if she was raped at his place, why did she go back there days later?
I can understand that she didn’t go to the police immediately, but would a victim not avoid an attacker at all cost?
There’s lots of reasons a woman can’t or doesn’t avoid her rapist, often times it’s somebody known to them so they might encounter each other in their daily lives. It can sometimes takes victims years to process what happened and she doesn’t know how to act. Or, if for example she had drink taken she might have felt she was overreacting or that it was her fault. She could have been in denial and trying to pretend everything was normal. He’s a powerful and influential man in France, she might have thought it was safer for her to play nice so he wouldn’t destroy her career, she might have felt that he wouldn’t try it again. There’s any number of reasons a woman who has been through a traumatic incident might make choices that make no sense to you, please don’t judge her for it.
I learned it is not entirely uncommon for people to try to confront their rapist and possibly be raped again.
I also knew two women who dated her rapist. It was their mind’s way of dealing with the trauma. The thought process they told me, went something like, he is my boyfriend now, we have feelings for each other, so then it couldn’t have been rape before, right? It was just a misunderstanding, something this horrible didn’t actually happen between us.
I think it is not uncommon for victims to question and gaslight themselves about whether or not it was rape. Unfortunately.
Maybe he drugged her the first time and she didn’t realize what had happened til after the second time.
or he drugged her both times
or he threatened her with something and cowed her into coming back
I can think of many ways this could have happened
Disgusted but not shocked.
My knee jerk reaction was that he looks like a rapist (meaning no one would possibly give consent to that beast)..
Then my thought went to all the african american men that are falsely accused of this or similar…
So i will suspend judgement until further notice.
I can’t say I find this shocking. It’s been common knowledge for years that he’s a disgusting drunk who does whatever he pleases. And France has him on a pedestal.
Like most of us here, not surprised at all.
Can’t wait for all the “french Cinema” to come to his rescue like they defend Polanski. Deneuve I am looking at you.
Behaviors and mentality like this in the french Cinema make me ashamed to be french, out of other things .
Not surprised at all.
Now we’ll probably see an “open letter” from a bunch of French artists, intellectuals and public personalities defending the monster, as it happened with Polanski and Strauss-Kahn. They will speak about the end of flirting, gallantry and courtship, how the French should be more sophisticated than the Puritanical simpletons from America and their #MeToo trifle and how the French women should consider themselves lucky to be surrounded by the ardor and passion of red-blooded men like Depardieu. Because what is rape if not a little bit of joie de vivre?
Hopefully, in spite of that, justice will prevail.
It’s so true and so disgusting at the same time how many women in France have this stage of mind.
Well oviously his lawyer tries to defend him, that’s literally his job. But I am pretty sure he is guilty.
Such a terrible man. I was at an event many years ago and he was present. He spent the evening leering at young girls and getting sloppy drunk. He actually asked me “what is the saying? Does the carpet match the curtains?” in regard to my red hair. I get disgusted just thinking about it.
Ewwwwww! I’m so sorry that happened to you. What a pig!
I just told him that my interior decorating was none of his business.
No surprise at all. I’ve always hated him.
Yes, the going back again thing….maybe she had been drinking a lot and it happened quickly when she was caught off guard without her consent – he is a lump of a man….but she thought …I am drunk.. it was awful, I didn’t want that but I wont say anything – it is Depardieu….no-one will believe me, I don’t want anyone to know. Then she is in his company again….and he does it again. This time she decides not to let the bastard get away with it. Still a very brave thing to do…no doubt his lawyer and “French cinema” are looking for ways to discredit/trash her even as we speak. Lets hope other women who have been raped and/or assaulted by him (which seems likely) will speak up, and this POS will go to jail.
I thought he gave up French citizenship and moved to Russia because he was tired of paying tax? What’s he doing still living in Paris?
It’s just like Johnny who became a US citizen just to pay less taxes (and apparently, strip the older kids from his will) but would fly back to France every time he needed medical attention because why pay the US fees when French tax payers can pay for it? Gérard probably still spend lots of time in France because that’s where work and fun is…
How do you rape someone twice on two separate occasions? He raped her on August 7 and she went back on August 13. A good defense attorney is going to ask these questions. Not victim shaming, I seriously want to know.
You’re not an attorney so you are victim shaming. This is a blog not a courtroom.
I have a right to my opinion just like you do. I can voice it, like you can. So calm yourself.
maybe she had some to drink and he gas lighted her about it was her fault
Maybe he drugged her the first time and she didn’t realize what had happened til after the second time.
or he drugged her both times
or he threatened her with something and cowed her into coming back
I can think of many ways this could have happened
and yes, you absolutely ARE victim shaming MelM
This isnt victim shaming but simple critical thinking. There must be more to this story as it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
If the man is guilty, then let him be judged
This isn’t victim shaming. It’s a question. One that many WILL be asking.
And the list of reasons given are perfectly valid, and should hold up.
I’m just glad she came forward. Victims staying quiet is how these pigs get away with it, and it continues…which just places more blame on the hands of the victims, and that’s sick.
Not surprised at all. He always gave me skeevy vibes and I don’t think he’s that great as an actor.
The speculation about why she might have returned skeeves me out a little.
There are many reasons victims of sexual violence are often forced to or end up interacting with their rapist. They share a friend group, they work together, they live together, the rapist is in a position of influence, the victim is not emotionally ready to confront what happened, the victim was gaslighted by the rapist or others into believing it was their fault. The list is as endless as individual victim’s circumstances.
We sound like MRAs when we speculate about why she returned because we’re giving credence to the notion that it’s an abnormal reaction. It’s not.
While I believe her, why did she return? Go file the report after the first time, and steer clear.
Now, I also understand that there could have been reasons valid to her for returning and being attacked the second time. He could have simply caught up to her in a different location the second time.
Either way, he’s a pig and this needs punishment.