A French feminist collective on Wednesday denounced President Emmanuel Macron's support for actor Gérard Depardieu, who was accused of rape and widely criticized after images were broadcast in which he multiplied misogynistic and insulting comments towards women.
“You said about Gérard Depardieu: “He makes France proud.” “Five words that bind us all against our will and sign a French impunity, that of an idol, a holy monster to whom we forgive everything,” write the signatories of this open Letter initiated by the #MeTooMedia collective and published by the daily newspaper Le Monde.
In a television interview on December 20, Emmanuel Macron denounced a “manhunt” against Gérard Depardieu. “He made France, our great authors, our great characters known throughout the world. (…) He makes France proud,” he explained.
The icon of French cinema has been in turmoil since the broadcast of a “Complément d'Enquête” report on the public channel France 2 in early December, in which we see him multiplying misogynistic insults.
The report also touched on his rape accusation in 2020 after an actress in her 20s, Charlotte Arnould, made a complaint. The actor, who is facing two further complaints of sexual assault and rape, denies these allegations.
Some voices in French cinema have since denounced his behavior towards women, particularly on set, and the silence that surrounded him.
“He did not attack the great actresses, but the little assistants… Vulgarity and provocation were always his metier,” recalls Sophie Marceau, who told him the poster in “Police” (1985) in an interview on Thursday in the Paris game .
“Is it not surprising that we have to wait fifty years to tell an actor that his behavior towards assistants, dressers, his partners is unacceptable, even under the pretext of being silly?” asks actress Isabelle Carré in one Text after her role published on Wednesday in the weekly magazine Elle.
A pro-Depardieu camp also mobilized until a column signed by around sixty cultural workers was published in Le Figaro on Tuesday, denouncing a “lynching.”