Gérard Depardieu, whose French justice confirmed Thursday the indictment for "rape" for facts which would date from 2018, was in 1991 at the heart of a lively Franco-American controversy caused by an interview, with the disputed translation, where he seemed to recognize such acts.
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The story begins in the summer of 1977 on the set of
Prepare your handkerchiefs
, a film by Frenchman Bertrand Blier.
The young actor, already compared to Jean-Paul Belmondo or Alain Delon, is asked about his tumultuous adolescence at the end of the 1950s in Châteauroux (central France).
In a portrait, the American magazine
Film Comment
reports these words in English by Depardieu.
“It was my friend Jackie - he was 16 or 17 - who took me on my first rape (rape).
One thing leading to another, and presto!
It was done (…) It was normal”,
he would then have declared.
The future actor was then only 9 years old.
"After that, I had plenty of rapes, too many to count."
“But there was nothing wrong with that
,” added the actor quoted in this article published in 1978.
“The girls wanted to be raped.
Well, it's not really about rape.
It's just the story of a girl who puts herself in a situation that she
likes
.
Largely unnoticed, these remarks were unearthed by the weekly
Time
in 1991, when Gérard Depardieu was in the running for the Oscar for best actor in
Cyrano de Bergerac
.
A journalist from
Time
then questions the actor: “
And what about the story that he participated in his first rape at the age of 9?
"Yes."
And after that, there were many rapes?
“Yes”
,
admits Depardieu, but it was absolutely normal in these circumstances
”, according to the exchange reported then by the magazine.
Wrath of American feminists
This passage arouses the ire of feminists in the United States, at a time when the political class is concerned about the increasing number of rapes.
"Horrified"
, the powerful National Organization for Women (NOW) demands an apology from the actor, an
"idol turned rapist"
according to the
Washington Post.
Faced with American "virtue leagues" and "puritanism", France is closing ranks.
It is an
"orchestrated attack"
by the American press,
"frightened by the very great popularity of the actor"
, then says the newspaper Antenne 2. The French political class gets involved.
“I am wholeheartedly with you”
, sends him by telegram the Minister of Culture, Jack Lang.
Gérard Depardieu denounces a translation error.
When journalist Victoria Foote-Blackman asks him in French if he admits having
"attended"
rapes,
Time
writes in English that he confirms having
"participated"
, according to a short transcript of the interview consulted by AFP .
Translation mistake ?
The full recording is now untraceable.
Asked by AFP, the journalist, now retired, remembers: Depardieu first assumed all of his statements to
Film Comment
in 1977, she said, before confirming having
"attended"
rather than
"participated in
" rapes.
The ex-journalist explains today that he found
“Frankly paranoid”
the French reaction to the
Time
article , presented as an American attempt to destabilize a foreign rival for the Oscar.
On what could have happened in the youth of the actor,
“there is nothing certain”,
she says
.
“Depardieu was part of a band which, it was said, behaved in a terrible way”
, notes our colleague.
"Clumsiness"
In his autobiography
Alive!
(ed. Plon) published in 2004, the actor returns to his controversial youth but denies any rape and mentions a double translation error, in
Film Comment
in 1978 then in
Time
in 1991. He nevertheless recognizes his
"clumsiness"
in the way to talk about this
"ignominy"
.
Solicited by AFP, lawyer Hervé Temime explains that his client
“never made the remarks which were lent to him”
which
“result from a major error of translation” which “was admitted, and the edition Time's European Union was modified at the time"
.
“Gérard Depardieu had mandated American lawyers to initiate a defamation action which he waived after Steve Ross, boss of Time Warner, had presented his apologies to him”
, adds Me Temime.
Contacted,
Time
did not respond to AFP.
“It is particularly malicious to come back to this episode”
Maître Temime, adviser to Gérard Depardieu
This scandal, forgotten in France, still pursues the actor.
It is mentioned, according to sources familiar with the matter, in the complaint of the young actress Charlotte Arnould, which earned Gérard Depardieu his indictment for "rape".
Read also“I was raped by Gérard Depardieu”: actress Charlotte Arnould wants to break the silence
The English-speaking press mentioned it again when the actor was questioned in February 2021.
Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, the complainant's lawyer, declined to comment.
His colleague Hervé Temime finds
"particularly malicious to return to this episode"
, according to him without foundation.
According to an acquaintance of the sacred monster of French cinema, this old controversy still has the gift of driving Gérard Depardieu crazy.
