The French movie star Gérard Depardieu was convicted by a Paris court on Tuesday on charges of sexually assaulting two women working on the set of a film in which he was starring in 2021. He received a suspended sentence of 18 months, and his name will be added to the national sex offender registry.
The judge also ruled that Depardieu, now 76, pay damages of €15,000, about $17,000, to one of the two victims and €14,040, including her medical fees, to the other.
Depardieu was not in court for the ruling. His lawyer, Jérémie Assous, said he would appeal. The verdict was welcomed by the victims’ lawyers as a landmark win for French women in the post #MeToo world. “For me, it’s a victory, truly,” said one of the two victims, who has agreed to be identified only by her first name, Amélie. “We are moving forward.”
Her lawyer, Carine Durrieu Diebolt, said she hoped the ruling would mean the “end of impunity for artists in the film industry”.
The two victims both worked on Les Volets Verts, a 2021 French film starring Depardieu — Amélie, as a set decorator, and the other plaintiff.
The court heard that Depardieu grabbed Amélie by the waist and pulled her towards him one day on set. Then he locked her between his legs and ran his hands over her buttocks, genitals and breasts while muttering obscenities.
“I’ve heard some actors recently still supporting Depardieu. Now with this verdict, no one can say Gérard Depardieu is not a sexual predator, and that’s very important,” she said.
The assistant director, now 34, testified that the actor had touched her breasts and buttocks on three occasions on the set in Paris. The judge called their version of events coherent, consistent and supported by other evidence. Depardieu, 76, denied the sexual assaults in both cases.
The actor said he was not the “vulgar, rude, trashy person who makes fun of people” that he had been portrayed as in the media. “I respect people. I like to help people,” he told the court in March.
But he also said he was from a different generation and that his flamboyant, bombastic and unapologetic personality was ill suited for the current era. From the beginning, it was clear the trial was about more than two sexual assaults by one of France’s best-known film stars.