Dozens of French Stars Defend Gerard Depardieu, Denounce ‘Lynching’ of Actor Charged With Rape
variety.comEthan Shanfeld Fifty-six French stars, including Carla Bruni, Charlotte Rampling and Carole Bouquet, signed an open letter defending Gerard Depardieu, the Oscar-nominated actor who has been charged with rape and accused by more than a dozen other women of sexual assault, harassment or groping.
The essay, published in the right-wing French newspaper Le Figaro, reads, in part: “We cannot remain silent in the face of the lynching targeting him, the torrent of hate being dumped on his personality” (via AP). “When Gerard Depardieu is targeted this way, it is the art [of cinema] that is being attacked. … Depriving ourselves of this immense actor would be a drama, a defeat.
The death of the art. Our art.” Depardieu has not been convicted in connection with any of the allegations and denies wrongdoing.
He called the open letter “beautiful” and its signatories “courageous,” France 24 reports. Depardieu, the 74-year-old star of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” “The Man in the Iron Mask” and more than 200 other films and television series, was indicted in 2020 on rape charges connected to a 2018 lawsuit filed by actor Charlotte Arnould.
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