Multiple outlets report that the French actor is currently in police custody as of Monday, April 29, for questioning related to claims of sexual assault
Gérard Depardieu is reportedly facing a criminal trial in France over claims of sexual assault.
Multiple outlets reported on Monday, April 29 that Depardieu, 75, will stand trial in October on charges of sexual assault brought against him by two women who allege he assaulted them in 2021 on the set of the movie The Green Shutters. The Paris Public Prosecutor made the announcement after the French actor was detained for questioning related to alleged sexual assaults Monday morning.”
“At the end of his police custody at the 3rd judicial police district, Gérard Depardieu was given a summons to appear before the criminal court… for sexual assaults likely to have been committed in September 2021 against two victims, on the set of the film The Green Shutters,” the prosecutor’s office wrote in a statement, as multiple outlets reported.
Per the Agence France-Presse’s (AFP) report on Monday morning, Depardieu’s attorneys, Christian Saint-Palais and Beatrice Geissman Achille, did not immediately respond to the AFP’s request for comment.
According to French outlet Le Monde, the Green Card actor was questioned over complaints from two women alleging that he sexually assaulted them on the sets of movies in 2014 and 2021, citing CNN affiliate BFMTV. The prosecutor’s office made no mention of allegations related to the 2014 film, per multiple outlets.
A spokesperson for one of Depardieu’s attorneys, Beatrice Geissman Achille, had no comment to PEOPLE at this time.
The cases appear unrelated to the sexual assault complaint against Depardieu that was dropped in January, in which actress Hélène Darras had alleged that Depardieu sexually assaulted her on the set of the 2008 French film Disco.
Darras went public with her claims in December 2023 as part of the investigative news series Complément d’Enquête. The complaint was dismissed due to the statute of limitations, according to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
A Paris Prosecutor’s Office spokesman told Variety that Darras “had decided to file a distinct complaint after being auditioned as a witness during the ongoing investigation stemming from the lawsuit by Charlotte Arnould.”
Depardieu was charged with raping Arnould back in 2018. His lawyer said at the time that the actor “absolutely denies any attack, any rape.”
The case was closed in 2019 due to lack of evidence. After it was reopened in the summer of 2020, the actor was again charged with rape and sexual assault, which he denied. He has not been convicted, per the outlet.
Darras was also one of 13 women who accused Depardieu of separate incidents of sexual assault or harassment in an April 2023 investigative report from Mediapart. French authorities told Variety that “there are no other women, to this day, whose testimonies as part of this investigation has given new elements to the judge.”
In her interview with Complément d’Enquête and as reported by Deadline, Darras recalled being 26 years old when working with Depardieu, remembering him being “unmanageable.”
Although he did not mention names, Depardieu opened up about the allegations against him in an open letter in the French outlet Le Figaro published in October 2023, expressing he has “never, ever abused a woman,” according to Deadline.
“I can no longer allow what I hear, what I have read about myself for several months. I thought I didn’t care, but no, actually no. This all gets to me. Worse still, it wipes me out,” the Man in the Iron Mask actor wrote, per Deadline.