Yahoo News Second Actress Files Sexual Assault Charges Against Gerard Depardieu
French actress Hélène Darras has filed an official complaint against Gérard Depardieu, claiming the French star sexually assaulted her on the set of the 2007 film Disco.
Darras is the second woman to go public with allegations against Depardieu, following actress Charlotte Arnould who filed a complaint in 2018, accusing the 74-year-old actor of rape. Arnould’s case is currently working its way through the courts. Depardieu has denied all charges.
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Complément d’Enquête, an investigative news show on France 2, broke the Darras news, teasing extracts of an exclusive interview with the actress, which will air on French TV on Thursday night.
French media is reporting that Darras lodged her complaint with the Paris Prosecutor’s Office on Sept. 10.
In the show’s interview with Darras, she recounts how Depardieu harassed her on the set of Disco when she was 26 years old and had a walk-on role as a dance competition contestant. The comedy from director Fabien Onteniente stars Franck Dubosc. Depardieu had a supporting role.
“He looked at me as if I were a piece of meat,” Darras said of Depardieu in an interview excerpt. She noted she was wearing a very tight dress as part of her costume, saying the French actor “came up to me and then passed his hand over my hips and buttocks.”
At the time, Darras said she did not report the star out of fear for her future career. “I was an extra. I hadn’t even finished theater school. I really wanted to be an actress and I didn’t want to be blacklisted at 26,” she told Complément d’Enquête.
Depardieu has faced multiple allegations of sexual assault, some dating back decades.
Earlier this year, investigative news website Médiapart published an in-depth report detailing allegations by 13 women. An investigation by French radio station France Inter reported on two separate allegations.
Depardieu, Oscar-nominated for his performance in Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s Cyrano de Bergerac and one of the best-known and most successful European actors of his generation, has denied all charges against him.
In October, he published an open letter in French newspaper Le Figaro defending himself. “Never, ever have I abused a woman,” he wrote. “To the media court, to the lynching that has been reserved for me, I have only my word to defend myself.”
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