Anouk Grinberg, one of the French actresses who decided to “break the silence” about sexual violence in the 7th film, believes that producers “know they are hiring an attacker” if they decide to give Gérard Depardieu a role .
• Also read: New lawsuit against Depardieu for alleged sexual assault in 2021
“When film producers hire Depardieu for a film, they know they are hiring an aggressor. “Not a potential aggressor: an aggressor,” accuses Anouk Grimberg in an interview with AFP.
The 60-year-old actress shared the poster with Gérard Depardieu in the film “The Green Shutters” (2022), after which two members of the team accused the actor of sexual assault and she denounced the “cowardice” of the director Jean Becker.
“Becker dares to say in the newspapers that my comments are scandalous and that if Depardieu had behaved badly he would of course have spoken to him about it between men.” Let's go! He knew full well that two women had been seriously attacked. To cover up their cowardice and their inability to protect women, they accuse me (Jean Becker and the film's producers) of lying,” she denounces.
“On +Les Shutters Vertes+ there was apparently a lady (speaker) dedicated to (preventing) attacks,” the actress continues. “She never supported women who were attacked. She never intervened when we heard about “pussy, pussy, cock, getting sucked.”
Anouk Grimberg is also supporting actress Charlotte Arnould, whose allegations in 2018 led to the actor being charged with rape since 2020, and is calling on other actresses to speak out.
“On certain films with Depardieu, we told the team before filming: 'If there is the slightest problem, keep quiet. If you say anything, you will be fired.' It's effective. People are afraid for their apple, afraid of losing their job and afraid that they won’t be believed.”
“Stink”
Anouk Grimberg refers to the French public television program “Complément d'Enquête”, broadcast in December, in which we see the actor multiplying misogynistic insults and remarks of a sexual nature, and assures that this type of language is the daily lot of the The making of the film was a film.
“What people saw in Complément d'investigation (about Depardieu) is quite soft compared to what I saw in Volets vertes, and I'm not the only one, we all saw it, we have all heard it (…). We were entitled to his lewd things from morning to night,” she says.
According to Anouk Grimberg, who has known Gérard Depardieu for a long time, his behavior has been getting worse for years. “I always heard him making sexual, serious comments, but yes, it got very, very worse with the permission of the profession that paid him to do it and that covered up his crimes,” she says.
When asked about the silence of famous actresses such as Catherine Deneuve or Isabelle Huppert, who filmed with Gérard Depardieu, Anouk Grimberg regrets being one of the few to denounce this sexual violence. “It’s a question of self-awareness and empathy. It's their business. But of course I would like to see many more women speak out, because many women know.”
Anouk Grimberg, who admits that she was once “complicit” in these attacks, explains that she has had “very important encounters that reveal you.” “Six years ago I met Charlotte Arnould, who at the time was very, very alone and completely devastated by what she had just suffered,” she says.
She has suffered such an attack herself, but believes that things are starting to change, albeit very slowly. “Of course, I had to endure seizures and was taught to see them as normal, not just in order to function at work, but simply in order to function in life,” she says. “As a woman, you understand that being attacked is part of life. That’s what’s changing.”
“It doesn't change that much, but listening has begun, it's already good.” As for those “who deny it, (they) participate in this stench.”