French actor Gerard Depardieu has been charged with rape and sexual assault allegedly committed in 2018 against an actress in her 20s.
A first probe of the rape accusations against Depardieu, 72, was dropped for lack of evidence but later reopened, leading to criminal charges filed in December, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday.
The French actor was initially accused of assaulting and raping an actress in her 20s at his Paris home in August 2018.
French actor Gerard Depardieu has been charged with rape and sexual assault allegedly committed in 2018 against an actress in her 20s
A probe into the allegations was dropped in 2019 but the actress relaunched proceedings, Paris prosecutors said last year.
Depardieu’s lawyer, Herve Temime, told AFP that the actor, who is free but under judicial supervision, ‘completely rejects the accusations’.
According to a source close to the case, Depardieu is a friend of the actress’s family.
Some reports have suggested Depardieu and the actress were rehearsing a scene of a theatre play, but the source said ‘there was nothing professional about the encounter’.
The woman’s lawyer, Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon, said that she hoped her client’s ‘private sphere will be respected’ as the case unfolds.
Described as a controversial and larger-than-life character, Depardieu became the face of French cinema due to roles in films such as such as Cyrano de Bergerac, Jean de Florette and Camille Claudel.
He has also had a successful international career, having made more than 180 films, working among others with Peter Weir in Green Card and with Ridley Scott in 1492.
The preliminary investigation was opened on August 27, 2018 after the young woman filed a complaint near the southern city of Aix-en-Provence for rape and sexual aggression against the star.
The French actor was initially accused of assaulting and raping an actress in her 20s at his Paris home in August 2018
It was then passed on to officers in Paris but the probe was dropped after nine months in early 2019 after investigators failed to gather enough proof to proceed to formal charges.
At the time, Depardieu’s lawyer, Herve Temime, said the actor ‘absolutely denies any rape, any sexual assault, any crime’ and dismissed the complaint as ‘groundless.’
The young woman relaunched proceedings by acting as an ‘injured party’ – which under French law almost always leads to a case being examined by an investigating magistrate.
Depardieu’s made his name in the 1974 film ‘Going Places’ after which he enjoyed a meteoric rise, demonstrating talent and allure in wide-ranging roles in classics, dramas and comedies alike.
In 2013 Depardieu sparked a huge outcry by leaving France and taking Russian nationality in protest at a proposed tax hike on the rich in his homeland.
Depardieu’s made his name in the 1974 film ‘Going Places’ after which he enjoyed a meteoric rise, demonstrating talent and allure in wide-ranging roles in classics, dramas and comedies alike
Russian President Vladimir Putin treated him to a dinner to present him with his new citizenship and Depardieu was subsequently full of praise in an interview to Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.
The French actor’s romantic history has been turbulent with him divorcing his first wife actress Elisabeth Guignot in 1996.
Depardieu then dated Carole Bouquet from 1997 until 2005. Ms Bouquet is also a successful French actress who plaid Melina Havelock in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.
As well as he romantic life, the actor has been in the headlines for his public row over tax arrangements in France and his decision to become a Russian resident.
The Cyrano de Bergerac star took Belgian residence after a bitter dispute with the French government over high rates of tax.
He later became a Russian citizen in 2013 after befriending President Vladimir Putin.
The Green Card star caused controversy at the time after slamming his home country.
He described France as a place ‘populated by foreigners and imbeciles making wine and stinky cheese’.
While in 2014, he was accused of throwing water over revellers beneath his Italian flat after being annoyed by their noise.
Described as a controversial and larger-than-life character, Depardieu (attending the opening of the Beiteddine International Art Festival in 2019) became the face of French cinema due to roles in films such as Cyrano de Bergerac, Jean de Florette and Camille Claudel
And in 2011 he had to apologise for urinating into a bottle on a flight from Paris to Dublin after being told by the flight crew that he would have to wait at least 15 minutes until he could use the onboard lavatories.
The actor was fined in 2013 after falling off his scooter while driving drunk in Paris.
He failed to turn up at the hearing at which he was fined €4,000 and had his licence suspended for six months.
Depardieu has also never been afraid of taking a swipe at the film industry, slamming the Oscars in 2016.
He said: ‘Cinema doesn’t exist any more. There is a world of entertainment and people, terrorised by the Americans, don’t know any more which language to speak.’
‘There are 10 stars and they are all American. Their films are crammed with special effects… and the rest of the world of cinema is struggling to exist.’