French actor Gerard Depardieu wrote in an open letter on Monday that he is “neither a rapist, nor a predator,” addressing the 2018 lawsuit against him for the sexual assault and rape of a 22-year-old actress. It also comes in the wake of the 13 women who came forward in 2023 accusing him of sexual assault and harassment.
“I have never, ever abused a woman,” Depardieu wrote in a letter published in the French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday. “Hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother in the stomach.”
The letter also addressed Charlotte Arnould’s 2018 lawsuit against him, though Depardieu did not mention Arnould by name. In August of 2018, Arnould reported that Depardieu assaulted her twice in his home during rehearsal sessions.
In his letter, Depardieu claims that an unnamed woman came to his house and his room “of her own free will” and that she came back “a second time.” “She now says she was raped there,” the letter reads.
In 2020, French authorities charged Depardieu with rape connected to the 2018 incident. In March of last year, the Paris Court of Appeal refused to drop the charges against Depardieu and launched a formal investigation against the actor. The case will now either be brought to trial or dismissed. The actor has denied the allegations against him.
This is far from the only allegation against Depardieu. Earlier this year, Depardieu was accused of sexual misconduct by 13 women during the shooting of 11 different films that were released between 2004 and 2022.
“Mr. Depardieu formally denies all the charges likely to come under criminal law,” a representative for law firm Cabinet Temime et Associés told TheWrap at the time.
Over the course of his career, the French actor has starred in over 250 films with directors ranging from Jean-Luc Godard and Ridley Scott to François Truffaut and Bernardo Bertolucci. He has won two César Awards for Best Actor for both 1980’s “The Last Metro” and 1990’s “Cyrano de Bergerac.”
