French film star Gérard Depardieu was taken into custody today at a Paris police station after being accused of sexually assaulting two female workers on film sets.
The 75-year-old, who is already under investigation for multiple similar crimes including rape, is said to have sexually abused production staff on the sets of two films.
One was Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters), which came out in 2022, and the other was Le Magician et les Siamois (The Magician and the Siamese), which premiered in 2015.
A source in the investigation said on Monday: “Mr Depardieu was summoned to appear at a Paris police station today and is currently in custody.”
‘He is being questioned for two alleged sexual assaults that occurred in 2014 and 2021.’
Depardieu, who became famous with hit films such as Green Card and The Last Metro, vehemently denies all accusations against him.
French actor Gerard Depardieu, 75, was arrested today in Paris after being accused of sexually assaulting two female workers on film sets.
Depardieu (left) pictured in 2006. In October last year, the film star broke his silence over claims he was a serial sexual abuser, saying: “I am neither a rapist nor a predator.”
The first complainant said she was attacked in September 2021, when Depardieu touched her intimately, put his legs around her and used foul language against her.
The woman, a 53-year-old mother named only Amelia, described a “wolf trap” laid with “phenomenal force.”
It is alleged that a witness managed to separate him from the woman.
Depardieu later said, “I apologize because it is necessary to apologize,” but continued to call the woman a “whore,” a source told news outlet BFM.
Les Volets Verts is based on a story by George Simenon about a “sacred monster” theater star who risks a heart attack while drinking too much and pursuing potential sexual conquests.
The second complainant claims to have been attacked in March 2014 during the filming of the short film Le Magician et les Siamois, in Doué-la-Fontaine, near Nantes, in western France.
The team also met at Depardieu’s home in Paris, where the 24-year-old production assistant is said to have been sexually abused, while the actor again made obscene comments.
Amelie’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, said the evidence pointed to “assault, harassment and sexual abuse.”
Durrieu-Diebolt also represents Charlotte Arnould, 28, who claims Depardieu raped and sexually assaulted her.
There is CCTV footage of Depardieu performing a sex act with Arnould at his Paris mansion in August 2018, but he insists it was consensual.
Arnould waived his legal right to anonymity in late 2021, after Depardieu was accused of rape and sexual assault.
A few days after his accusation, Depardieu returned to work on the location of the police drama Maigret and the Dead Girl, also by Georges Simenon, in which he starred alongside Jade Labeste.
In October, he broke his silence over claims that he was a serial sexual abuser, saying: “I am neither a rapist nor a predator.”
Accusing his enemies of subjecting him to a “lynching” in the media, he expressed his anger in an open letter to the French press.
Last year a criminal investigation was opened into the alleged suicide of a French actress who had accused Depardieu of sexual violence.
It was feared that the last hours of Emmanuelle Debever, 60, could be linked to the multiple allegations of abuse made by women against Depardieu.
He died on December 7, the exact day a new documentary titled Gérard Depardieu: The Fall of the Ogre aired throughout France.
It contained disturbing details of an alleged attack by Depardieu on Mrs Debever, when she was still a teenager.
In December, another French actress filed a formal sexual assault complaint against Depardieu, saying he treated her like “a piece of meat.”
Paris prosecutors confirmed that Hélène Darras, 43, denounced Depardieu in September.
The couple appeared together in the 2007 film Disco, when Darras was 26, and was allegedly assaulted.
Waiving her legal right to anonymity, Ms Darras said in the same documentary series Additional Investigation (Complément d’enquete): ‘He (Depardieu) is ungovernable.
‘He looks at me like I’m a piece of meat. I have an ultra-tight dress, he brings me closer to him by the waist, then he runs his hand over my hips, over my butt.’
And in December 2023, Spanish journalist and writer Ruth Baza filed a complaint in Spain against the actor for rape, for events dating back to 1995 in Paris.
That same month, French President Emmanuel Macron sparked fury by defending Depardieu.
Macron appeared on a television show and said he hated that the actor was subjected to “human persecution.”