Actor Gerard Depardieu faces new rape investigation
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French actor Gerard Depardieu
PARIS • French actor Gerard Depardieu (photo) will face a new rape investigation in France, after prosecutors reopened a case into allegations he assaulted a woman during casting tryouts at his Paris mansion, sources close to the case said on Wednesday.
Depardieu's accuser, an actress in her 20s who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said the actor assaulted and raped her during two separate tryouts in August 2018.
The 71-year-old star of the Asterix And Obelix films (1999 to 2012) has already been questioned by the police over the claims and saw the case dropped in June last year, when prosecutors decided they lacked sufficient evidence to pursue a trial.
That prompted his accuser to file a new complaint that included civil proceedings, which under French law almost always leads to a case being examined anew by an investigating magistrate.
A judicial source said a new judge was appointed in August to reinvestigate the case.
Depardieu's lawyer Herve Temime said he had not been informed of the new investigation, but called it a "non-event, as it is an automatic decision" to appoint an investigating magistrate.
Depardieu has denied the allegations, which came in the wake of the #MeToo movement sparked by the rape and assault claims against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The actor, who has made more than 180 films, is one of the best-known faces in French cinema, through films such as Cyrano De Bergerac (1990), for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
He has starred alongside actresses including Catherine Deneuve and Kate Winslet, and played the superhuman Gaul in the Asterix And Obelix films.
In 2013, he prompted outrage at home after taking Russian citizenship in a protest against France's proposed tax hike on the ultra-wealthy.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE