French actor Gérard Depardieu was accused of sexual violence by 13 women in an article published Tuesday by French investigative news outlet Mediapart.
The 74-year-old actor has been under investigation since 2020 over rape and sexual assault charges. A dozen women, some of them on the record, are now accusing him of engaging in unwanted sexual touching and of making inappropriate comments on several occasions during film shoots as well as off set.
According to Mediapart, three of them testified to the police but none pressed charges, out of fear that “their word would weigh little against a monument of French cinema.”
In a statement from his lawyers shared with the French outlet, Depardieu said he “formally denies all accusations susceptible of coming under criminal law.”
A one-time Oscar nominee, Depardieu is one of France’s most prolific actors, having played in over 200 movies.
But the actor has been mired in a series of controversies in recent years — first regarding his links with Russia, after he obtained a Russian passport in 2013 to escape France’s high tax rates, and then in December 2020, when he was indicted on charges of rape and sexual assault against French actress Charlotte Arnould.
