By AFP
French movie large Gerard Depardieu has been charged with rape and sexual assault, a judicial supply instructed AFP on Tuesday, the newest in a string of such allegations towards outstanding figures in France.
Depardieu, one of the crucial well-known actors of his technology, is accused of assaulting and raping an actress in her 20s in 2018.
An preliminary investigation into the rape accusations towards the 72-year outdated Depardieu was dropped in 2019 for lack of proof.
But it was reopened final summer season, resulting in felony costs being filed in December, the judicial supply mentioned.
The actress accuses Depardieu of getting raped and assaulted her at his Parisian house on two separate events in August 2018.
Depardieu’s lawyer Herve Temime instructed AFP that the actor, who’s free however below judicial supervision, “completely rejects the accusations”.
He additionally mentioned he regretted that the case had been made public.
According to a supply near the case, Depardieu is a good friend of the actress’s household.
‘Nothing skilled’
Some reviews have urged that Depardieu and the actress have been rehearsing a scene of a theatre play, however the supply mentioned “there was nothing professional about the encounter”.
The girl’s lawyer, Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon, instructed AFP that she hoped her shopper’s “private sphere will be respected” because the case unfolds.
Besides lengthy being a famous person in his house nation, Depardieu is certainly one of France’s best-known actors overseas.
He received acclaim in French-language movies equivalent to The Last Metro and Jean de Florette, however went on to carry out in a variety of English-language motion pictures, together with the romantic comedy Green Card and a movie model of Hamlet.
He is legendary for untiringly capturing movie after movie clocking up greater than 200 cinema or TV movies over greater than 50 years.
But over the course of his profession he has typically been embroiled in scandals which have hit the headlines, and thrown public tantrums.
His darkish facet
He knocked a paparazzi unconscious in 2005, urinated within the cabin of a Paris-Dublin flight in 2011 and attacked a motorist in central Paris in 2012. The following yr he was fined for drink driving.
“The man is dark but the actor is huge,” actress Catherine Deneuve, who starred alongside Depardieu in The Last Metro, mentioned of him.
Depardieu introduced in late 2012 that he was “giving his passport back” to protest towards French tax charges, went into tax exile in Belgium and have become a citizen of Russia which he known as “a great democracy”, usually praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After Paris prosecutors reopened the case introduced by the actress, an investigating Justice of the Peace questioned Depardieu on December 16 and, discovering “serious and corroborated evidence”, introduced the costs.
Police additionally proceeded to a confrontation between Depardieu and his alleged sufferer, a judicial supply mentioned.
Depardieu is the daddy of 4, together with the actor Guillaume Depardieu who died in 2008.
Besides his prolific appearing profession, he has additionally been a winemaker, restaurant proprietor and a singer.
Just over three years for the reason that #MeToo motion broke taboos round rape the world over, France is seeing an outpouring of tales and a wide-ranging debate about intercourse, energy and consent.
Wave of allegations
Other huge names in cinema to be accused of sexual assault or rape embody director Luc Besson, whose movies embody Nikita and The Fifth Element.
Week after week new revelations have focused the wealthy and highly effective, with one of many nation’s best-known tv presenters, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, turning into the newest to be accused of rape.
The French political institution has additionally been rocked by comparable accusations, together with towards present Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
And a former French authorities minister, Georges Tron, final week started serving three years in jail after a court docket discovered him responsible of raping an worker throughout “foot massages” in his workplace and on the house of his co-defendant.
