Gérard Depardieu faces another sexual assault allegation in new complaint

A new complaint of assault against Gérard Depardieu has been filed with French police, according to Variety. The complaint was filed by Hélène Darras, who alleges that Depardieu groped her on the set of Disco in 2007 when she was 26 years old. Darras is one of several women who have come forward about Depardieu’s alleged misconduct; another case, in which actor Charlotte Arnauld accused Depardieu of rape, is currently making its way through the French court system.

Per Variety, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed it was “investigating the complaint internally for the moment.” A spokesperson told the outlet they are “analyzing the complaint” to see whether it should be handled separately or as part of Arnauld’s case. Regarding whether the complaint falls under the statute of limitations, “it depends how we take it into account, and that’s why we’re studying it and haven’t yet transferred it to the dedicated investigative unit,” the spokesperson said.

Darras is expected to detail more of her complaint in the French investigative news program Complément d’Enquête on Thursday (per The Guardian). In excerpts from the show, she recalled that Depardieu “looked at me as if I were a piece of meat” on the set of Disco, and “came up to me and then passed his hand over my hips and buttocks.” She claimed he asked her if she wanted to come to his dressing room, but when she declined “that didn’t change anything. He kept groping me between takes.” She didn’t speak up about the incident for a long time because she feared being “blacklisted”: “I was an extra. I hadn’t even finished theater school. I really wanted to be an actress.”

Darras was one of more than a dozen women who came forward about Depardieu’s behavior in a Mediapart investigation published earlier this year (per The Associated Press). She told that outlet she was wary of making “an enemy of casting directors” by going public with her accusation at the time, but eventually went to the police in 2022 because “the film world is full of Gérards and we have to speak up.”

Depardieu has denied any wrongdoing, stating in an open letter earlier this year that he had “never” abused a woman and doing so “would be like kicking the womb of my own mother.” The prolific French star asserted specifically that his encounter with Arnauld was consensual. Addressing the sexual harassment claims in the Mediapart report, he wrote, “I’ve often done that which others wouldn’t dare to do: pushed limits, shaken certitudes, habits on the set between two takes, between two tensions… to get a laugh.” Depardieu continued (via BBC News), “Not everyone laughed. If, in believing to live the present intensely, I hurt, shocked someone, whoever it was, it was never my intention to hurt, and I beg you to excuse me for behaving like a child who wanted to have fun in a gallery.”