2023-05-24 15:25:55
Following his indictment and the numerous charges against him, Gérard Depardieu (right) was dismissed from the promotion of Umamihis latest film. Capture BFM TV / AFP / ANWAR AMRO
Since her accusations against the sacred monster of cinema, the young actress says, on BFMTV, “live in hell”. Indicted in 2021, the actor denies the facts.
Tuesday, in a long interview at the microphone of BFMTV, Charlotte Arnould looks back on the last five years of her life. Years punctuated by the legal proceedings she initiated against Gérard Depardieu whom she accuses of having raped her twice on August 7 and then on August 13, 2018. The interview is chilling. The 28-year-old actress says “living in hell” since five years. In April, thirteen women testified in a long investigation of Mediapart. All accuse the sacred monster of French cinema of sexual violence. The 74-year-old actor, indicted for rape and sexual assault since December 16, 2020, “formally denies all the charges likely to come under criminal law”.
At the time of the alleged facts, Charlotte Arnould was 22 years old. Gérard Depardieu is a friend of her father and the young woman has known him since her childhood. “I have always lived knowing that Depardieu was close. He held me in his arms when I was a baby. There was a trust and an esteem”, she says. But on August 7, “I go to his house. And quite quickly everything changes“, she recalls.
That day, they would have crossed in the street, and Depardieu would have invited her to his apartment to give him advice on his career. Arriving at her private mansion, she claims to have been the victim of a “digital penetration” in the living room. The following week, the actress said she went to his house again to confront him: “It’s happening the same thing.»
Read also“I was raped by Gérard Depardieu”: actress Charlotte Arnould wants to break the silence
The shock passed, she decides on August 27 to go see the police. “I feel dead. I will take a little time to integrate it and make it aware. That’s where I’m going to take the step of going to file a complaint“says Charlotte Arnoult. At the police station, she feels listened to by the police and “does not feel like his word is being questioned”. But in 2019, after a preliminary investigation, the case was dismissed by the Paris prosecutor’s office. So for “recover its integrity”, the actress is a civil party. And the case is entrusted to an examining magistrate.
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A huge omerta
«Everyone knows he behaves like that on set. Nobody is surprised, denounces Charlotte Arnould. There is a huge omerta and there are people who allow this to be possible. All these people who are in power are feeding the monster”. When in April, Mediapart publishes her investigation, the actress gives an interview to the magazine Elle. Charlotte Arnould says she was relieved to no longer be alone: “It’s sad to come to this, but it also lends weight to my story and my case.”
Read alsoDepardieu case: Charlotte Arnould hopes that other women will dare to file a complaint
If for many of them, the facts are prescribed, others can still file a complaint. Charlotte hopes they will have the courage. From the magazine Ellethe actress confides that the thirteen testimonies are only the tip of the iceberg.
Already suffering from eating disorders at the time of the facts, Charlotte Arnould explains that she had serious consequences. “Symptoms that arise from post-traumatic stress“, supports the young woman. Anorexic, she would also suffer from bulimia and hyperphagia. Added to this are “periods of scarification, alcohol, medication, etc. (…). My life no longer resembles anything. I have lived in hell for five years”she summarizes.
Dancer and pianist, the young woman had considered a career as an actress. But “the flame is extinguished”. Charlotte Arnould has, however, “shot in the art of crime in 2019”made a few short films and played a little in the theater.
Indicted for rape and sexual assault, Gérard Depardieu was dismissed from the promotion of the last, Umami.
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