A second woman is expected to give evidence on Wednesday during the third day of the trial in Paris of the French actor Gérard Depardieu for sexual assault.
The 34-year-old assistant director, who has not been named, and a 54-year-old woman – referred to as Amélie – accuse Depardieu of sexual harassment and sexist abuse during the shooting of Jean Becker's film Les Volets Verts in September 2021.
On Tuesday during the second day of the hearing, Amélie, a set decorator, told the court that Depardieu had boasted he could give women an orgasm without touching them and that he grabbed her brutally.
She said the actor pinned her by closing his legs around her before groping her waist, her stomach and her breasts, and that he had made obscene remarks.
Fear
Asked why she had not come forward immediately, she said: "I didn't want to talk about it, I felt humiliated. I was having a great run professionally and I knew that if I filed a police report, it would be the end of the film."
Depardieu, 76, who has acted in more than 200 films and television series, has been accused of improper behaviour by around 20 women but this is the first case to come to trial.
"I deny all of it," he told the court on Tuesday.
"I don't see why I would go around groping a woman, her buttocks, her breasts. I'm not somebody who rubs himself against others on the metro," he said.
During interviews with the police, Depardieu denied any physical contact with Amélie but during the hearing he admitted touching her.
"I confirm that I grabbed her by the hips and said some not very nice things to her," he told the court ."But not to grope her."
"I grabbed her hip so as not to slip because I was so upset by her, by the heat, it was a Friday towards the end of shooting, I was very tired."
Depardieu is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema's response to the #MeToo movement..
French film star Depardieu goes on trial on sexual assault charges
"He was constantly making remarks about women, including on what they were wearing," Amélie told the judges.
The trial, initially scheduled for October 2024, was postponed due to the actor's ill health.
The hearing continues.
(with AFP)
