French actor Gérard Depardieu is in custody at a Paris police station after being accused of sexually assaulting two women on film sets, it has been reported.
The Oscar-nominated actor Gérard Depardieu has faced multiple accusations over the years, after being put under investigation in December 2020 for rape and sexual assault following allegations from actor Charlotte Arnould in 2018.
In 2022, French investigative news website Mediapart published information saying he’d been accused of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting 13 young women.
In December, France 2’s investigative documentary Depardieu: The Fall of an Ogre – claimed the number of accusers stands at 16.
Now, the French household name has been summoned to custody in Paris, according to multiple publications.
An investigating source told MailOnline on Monday: ‘Mr Depardieu was summoned to appear at a Paris police station today, and is currently in custody.
‘He is being questioned about two alleged sexual assaults that took place in 2014 and 2021.’
According to French publication BFMTV, the films in which the alleged assaults took place are Les Volets Verts (or The Green Shutters) and Le Magician et les Siamois (The Magician and the Siamese).
Actor Gérard Depardieu, who starred in movies such as Green Card and The Last Metro, vehemently denies all the accusations against him.
The first woman – a 53-year-old mother – alleges Depardieu attacked her in 2021, trapping her legs between his thighs, touching her intimately and using crude language against her.
It is alleged a witness was able to pull her away from what the complainant described as a ‘wolf trap’ of ‘phenomenal force’.
Depardieu later apologized, as the French outlet reported he said, ‘I apologize since it is necessary to apologize…’ before, according to the complainant, repeatedly calling her a ‘slut’ throughout the rest of filming.
In his October letter published in French newspaper Le Figaro to defend himself, the actor said: ‘Never, ever have I abused a woman. To the media court, to the lynching that has been reserved for me, I have only my word to defend myself.’
After this open letter, the complainant explained how she could no longer work and suffered anxiety attacks as well as PTSD, according to the French outlet.
Ahead of the French 2 documentary airing, it was revealed that French actress Hélène Darras had accused him of sexual assault, which was alleged to have occurred when they were working together on the 2007 film Disco.
In the programme she claimed the actor was ‘unmanageable’ and looked at her as if she was a ‘piece of meat’.
She then accused him of ‘passing his hand over’ her hips and buttocks.
Depardieu’s first major role came in 1974 when he appeared in Bertrand Blier’s Going Places, and he went on to become a leading French actor of the 1980s and 90s.
He rose to fame in the US too when he starred alongside Andie MacDowell in 1990 film Green Card.
In the UK he is best known for his role as tax-collector turned farmer in Jean de Florette.
In 1996, Depardieu – who is a household name in France – was awarded the highest French order of merit: the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.