PARIS: French actor Gerard Depardieu has been charged with rape and sexual assault allegedly committed in 2018 against an actress in her 20s, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
An initial investigation into the rape accusations against Depardieu, 72, was dropped in 2019 for lack of evidence but reopened last summer, leading to criminal charges filed in December. The actress accuses Depardieu of having raped and assaulted her at his Parisian home in August 2018.
The office said that the French actor was not detained when he was handed the preliminary charges on December 16. The Paris prosecutor’s office addressed the charges after the case was leaked to French media.
French media reports said the charges relate to allegations made by an actress in her 20s that date back to 2018. An initial inquiry against the star was dropped in 2019 because of lack of evidence but was later revived.
French media said the actress and dancer alleged that Depardieu assaulted her on August 7 and August 13, 2018 at his home in Paris. The two met when Depardieu led a master class at her school.
The actress, who has not been named, first filed a complaint with details of alleged rape and assault in August 2018 in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence. The probe was taken over by Paris investigators but was soon dropped.
Depardieu’s lawyer, Herve Temime, said that the actor “absolutely denies any rape, any sexual assault, any crime”. The woman’s lawyer, Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon, said that she hoped her client’s “private sphere will be respected” as the case unfolds.
Depardieu has appeared in 200 films over six decades and is among a few French actors who have made a name for themselves in Hollywood. He won a Golden Globe for his performance in Green Card, a 1990 English-language romantic comedy co-starring Andie MacDowell.
His first big hit in France was Les Valseuses, (Going Places), Bertrand Blier’s classic farce about two wandering thugs. Before crossing the Atlantic to star in Green Card, Depardieu played an array of roles ranging from Jean Valjean, the thief-turned-saint in Les Miserables, to Christopher Columbus.
In 2014, he played the leading role in Welcome to New York, the film inspired by the life of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former director of the International Monetary Fund who was accused in 2011 of sexually assaulting a hotel maid.
