French actor Depardieu on trial over sex charges

French actor Gerard Depardieu, who has faced a string of assault and rape allegations, goes on trial in Paris accused of sexually abusing two women during a film shoot in 2021.

- CELINE BRUNEAU

Depardieu, 76, who has made more than 200 films and television series, has been accused of improper behaviour by around 20 women but this is the first case to come to trial.

He is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema’s sometimes laggardly response to the #MeToo movement.

The case before the Paris criminal court concerns charges of sexual assault during filming director Jean Becker's Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) in 2021.

Anouk Grinberg, a prominent actor who appeared in the film, has backed the two plaintiffs — a set dresser, 54, and a 34-year-old assistant director. Both women allege sexual violence.

Grinberg said Depardieu had constantly made “salacious remarks” during shooting, and said producers who hired him knew they were “hiring an abuser”

The trial, initially scheduled to take place in October, had been postponed due to the actor’s ill health.