On the opening day of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, France's most famous actor was declared guilty of sexual assault. Gérard Depardieu, 76, was sentenced on Tuesday, May 13, to 18 months in prison with a suspended sentence by the 10th chamber of the Paris court for acts committed against two women in September 2021 during the filming of Jean Becker's film Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters).
At the hearing in late March, Amélie (the victims wish to remain anonymous), a 54-year-old set decorator, recounted how the actor, sitting on a stagehand box between two scenes filmed in a Parisian apartment, invited her to approach and then trapped her with his legs before "kneading" her buttocks, pubis and chest. Sarah, 34, the director's assistant, described three incidents of Depardieu touching her buttocks and chest – the first on a Paris street while she was alone and walking the actor from his dressing room to the set, and two other times that were not asclearly remembered.
Depardieu denied everything. Regarding Amélie, he claimed to have simply "scolded her" for poor work performance. As for Sarah, he asserted that the events couldn't have occurred as it was impossible for him to walk from his dressing room to the set due to his health condition, and he never moved alone without a member of his security detail.
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