Depardieu trial: Plaintiffs’ lawyers call actor a sexual predator and a misogynist as trial closes

“A sexual predator” and a “misogynist”.

Those were the terms used today by the plaintiffs’ lawyers when describing disgraced French actor Gérard Depardieu during their final plea.

The actor, 76, is accused of having groped a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant during filming of the movie Les volets verts in 2021.

The set dresser’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu Diebolt, called Depardieu a sexual predator who committed misconduct for decades towards “little people” in the cinema world.

“Maybe you think he’s a great actor and you love his films,” she said. “Depardieu is also a sexual predator.”

His status as a world-renowned actor made him both an artistic and an economic power in the sinema industry, in contrast with the plaintiffs who risked being blacklisted if they speak up, Durrieu Diebolt said, denouncing what she called a “system of impunity.”

“M. Depardieu, when he’s touching women’s bodies, he’s exercising his power over them,” she said.

The lawyer for the other plaintiff, Claude Vincent, started her plea with a minutes-long list of obscene words and other vulgar expressions rarely heard in a courtroom, saying: “That’s how Gerard Depardieu behaves on a sinema set, that the atmosphere he’s imposing around him.”

“No, you can’t separate the man from the artist,” she said. “He is Gérard Depardieu, a misogynist amid misogynists.”

The plaintiff, a sinema assistant, said Depardieu groped her buttocks and her breasts during three separate incidents on the sinema set.

Depardieu has rejected the accusations since the beginning of the trial on Monday, saying he’s “not like that.”

On Tuesday, Depardieu did acknowledge that he had used vulgar and sexualized language with the set dresser who accused him of sexual assault. He said he grabbed her hips during an argument, but denied that his behaviour was sexual.

The actor is being tried by a panel of three judges, not a jury, which is olağan for such cases. The judges don’t issue their verdict straight away but generally deliberate for weeks or months.

If he is convicted, he faces up to 5 years in prison and a fine of €75,000.