French Actor Gerard Depardieu Held For Questioning Over Assault Charges

French actor and newly-minted Russian citizen Gerard Depardieu poses on June 6, 2013 after holding a press conference dedicated to the launch of the first Russian film festival in Nice, in southeastern France. French police summoned Depardieu over suspected sexual assault, a police source said on April 29, 2024. Depardieu already faces a rape charge and sexual assault investigation, as well as claims of assault by more than a dozen women — all of which he has strongly denied. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

French police on Monday detained screen legend Gerard Depardieu for questioning after two women accused him of sexual assault, a source close to the case said.

The 75-year-old actor, who has made more than 200 films and television series, was charged with rape in 2020 and was forced to put his career on hold last autumn as allegations of sexual harassment and assault mounted against him. He denies any wrongdoing.

Police were to question Depardieu over allegations from two women that he assaulted them on film sets, one in 2021 and the other in 2014, a police source said, confirming a report by the BFMTV television channel.

The actor’s lawyers, Christian Saint-Palais and Beatrice Geissmann Achille, did not immediately reply to a request from AFP for comment.

The first woman accuses him of having assaulted her when she was a member of the crew on the 2022 feature film “The Green Shutters”.

The set designer, who filed a formal complaint in February, told investigative website Mediapart that Depardieu grabbed her as she left the set in a private hotel in Paris.

She alleged he groped her “waist and stomach, moving up to (her) breasts” and made obscene comments before his bodyguards removed him.

The woman’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, declined to provide AFP with further details.

The second woman has alleged Depardieu groped her “all over” and made “inappropriate” remarks while she was an assistant on the set of 2015 film “Le magician et le Siamois” (“The Magician and the Siamese”), she told regional newspaper Le Courrier de l’Ouest.

Depardieu already faces a rape charge, as well as claims of assault from more than a dozen women — all of which he has strongly denied.

“Never ever have I abused a woman,” Depardieu wrote in Le Figaro newspaper in October.