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French actor Gérard Depardieu copped to using crude language and exhibiting some improper behavior, but denied allegations of sexual assault while testifying in a Paris court Tuesday, March 25.
Per The Associated Press, the French actor took the stand for the first time in his trial, where he is facing accusations that he groped two women on the set of the 2021 film The Green Shutters. Depardieu admitted to using some vulgar and sexualized language with one of the plaintiffs, a set dresser, and also acknowledged that he grabbed her hips during an argument over a painting.
Throughout his testimony, Depardieu seemed to acknowledge a tendency to bad behavior, both in regards to this incident and more generally. “I’ve always been told I have a Russian nature, I don’t know if it’s because of the drinking or the vulgarity,” he said. “I have said in black and white that I am a disgusting slob.”
He said he understood the set dresser may have felt “suffocated” by his behavior, adding, “I understand perfectly if she’s a bit upset.”
The actor even described his behavior on set as a “type of aggression,” but remained adamant that it was “certainly not sexual.” At one point, he even proclaimed, “I don’t touch women’s butts.”
Still, Depardieu said he apologized to the set dresser several days after the alleged incident, saying he recognized that she was in “shock” and “petrified.”
Depardieu’s testimony was followed by the set dresser herself, who claimed Depardieu grabbed her hips in a narrow corridor and started touching her. While on the stand, she pointed to her buttocks, hip, and pubic area, before alleging Depardieu then grabbed her chest.
“That’s when I had a reflex of ‘My God,’” the set dresser said. “I tried to free myself, I tried to take his hands away, I couldn’t do it,” she testified. “He terrified me, he laughed, he looked like a madman.”
The woman added that someone had to remove Depardieu’s hands from her. She also claimed that at one point, the actor asked her to touch his penis with obscene language and suggested that he wanted to rape her. “I saw in his eyes pleasure in frightening me, that’s what I felt, it’s savagery,” she said. “He terrified me, and that amused him.”
