French actor Gérard Depardieu, a titan of French cinema for over five decades, has seen his star dim in recent years due to allegations of crude behavior and sexual violence. The 75-year-old is set to stand trial on Monday, accused of sexually assaulting two women during a 2021 film shoot. Depardieu's career, which spans over 200 films, includes iconic roles in adaptations of French literary classics like Cyrano de Bergerac and Les Misérables. His brash and often offensive persona, once celebrated, has recently become a liability.
In 2023, a broadcast of images from a 2018 trip to North Korea showed Depardieu making misogynistic and sexual remarks about an underage girl. While then-Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak called the recording a 'shame for France,' President Emmanuel Macron defended Depardieu, labeling him a 'towering actor' who 'makes France proud.' This defense came amid a series of rape and sexual assault allegations against Depardieu that span several decades.
Born on December 27, 1948, in Châteauroux, central France, Depardieu's early years were marked by delinquency. He discovered theater in Paris and made his film debut in 1965. One of his breakthrough roles was as a violent small-time crook in 1974's Les Valseuses, directed by Bertrand Blier, which drew criticism for its vulgarity. Despite the backlash, Depardieu's career flourished, earning him France's equivalent of an Oscar, the 1981 César award for Le Dernier Métro, directed by François Truffaut.
In 1987, Newsweek dubbed Depardieu a 'hero with a thousand faces' as he starred in a series of successful films, culminating in 1990's Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau. For his role as the titular character, Depardieu won a second César and the Cannes festival's acting award. He ventured into Hollywood in the early 90s with films like Green Card and 1492, but past remarks resurfaced in Time magazine, where he seemed to confess to committing 'rapes' as a young man. Depardieu claimed his words were mistranslated, but the controversy hindered his Hollywood ambitions.
The late 90s and early 2000s saw commercial success with live-action adaptations of the Asterix comic books and dramas like the police thriller 36, Quai des Orfèvres, but Depardieu did not reach the same artistic heights. Some allegations eventually led to legal action. In 2020, he was charged with raping actress Charlotte Arnould, then in her 20s, which he denied. Another actor, Hélène Darras, filed a criminal complaint for sexual assault, but the case was dropped due to the statute of limitations.
Depardieu's antics, such as urinating on a plane in 2011, once drew laughs but now make him a liability. Studios removed him from publicity campaigns, and his career was put on hold in late 2023. In an open letter, Depardieu proclaimed, 'I am neither a rapist nor a predator.' He acknowledged his provocative and crude behavior, apologizing if he had hurt or shocked anyone unintentionally.
Beyond his legal troubles, Depardieu has distanced himself from France, aligning with authoritarian regimes in North Korea, Cuba, and Algeria. In 2012, he renounced his French citizenship, living as a tax exile in Belgium and acquiring Russian citizenship.
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