Representatives of the French film and television industry said they will no longer work with actor Gerard Depardieu after the documentary “Depardieu: The Fall of the Ogre” was shown on the public television channel France 2. This is reported by The Guardian.
The film is about the actor’s visit to North Korea, which was timed to coincide with the country’s 70th anniversary celebrations in 2018. The actor, who travelled to Pyongyang with a film crew, knew he was being filmed constantly but made lewd comments about women, repeatedly sexually harassed an interpreter and made sexual comments about a teenage girl at an equestrian club.
MEP Manon Aubry described the footage as “vile”.
Manuel Aldouis, head of cinema and international development at broadcaster France Télévisions says in the documentary that the company has suspended all projects with the actor.
“We shouldn’t glorify Gérard Depardieu, it’s just not possible,” he said.
“There was tolerance and it was a mistake”, Marc Missonnier, head of the French Union of Film Producers, said of Depardieu’s behaviour towards women.
Although Depardieu has been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women and there is an official rape investigation against him, until recently the artiste remained active in French cinema. However, this year he has faced women’s protests across France. Crowds of women gathered in front of events featuring Depardieu, carrying anti-rape placards and chanting the word “shame”.
Agent Jean-Louis Livy, who has worked with the 74-year-old actor for decades, called Depardieu not just a star but a symbol of French cinema in the same film.
“He’s not a rapist or a predator. Yes, he’s a monster, but he’s a sacred monster. He is a monument,” Levy said.
As reported in the media, actress Charlotte Arnoux made rape allegations against Depardieu in 2019. She claimed that “two rapes” took place in the actor’s Paris home in late August 2018. The prosecutor’s office, having launched an investigation, later dropped it. However, Arnoux made sure the case was reopened in 2020.
In April this year, 13 more women reported sexual harassment by Depardieu, we are talking about incidents between 2004 and 2022.
The actor in early October this year made a statement on the pages of the newspaper Le Figaro under the headline
“Finally, I want to tell you the whole truth”. According to him, the woman, whose name he does not call once throughout the letter, came to his home on his own initiative. Everything that happened between them was consented to by her.
Depardieu emphasised that if he had offended or shocked anyone, he apologised as he never intended to hurt anyone.
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