Thirteen women accuse French actor Gérard Depardieu of sexual violence during the filming of various films between 2004 and 2022

French actor Gérard Depardieu is once again under the spotlight.

Thirteen women have accused him of committing acts of sexual violence, including touching, obscene phrases and insistent growling, during the filming of 11 films between 2004 and 2022. The testimonies, revealed on Tuesday by the Mediapart investigative outlet, describe a similar modus operandi of the actor and highlight the lack of reaction from the film crews, who most of the time ignored the facts or minimized the behavior of one of the best-known figures in French cinema.

Depardieu, who denies all the accusations, had already been charged with sexual assault in 2020 after a complaint by a young actress.

The women who have given their testimonies (some anonymous, others not) to the French investigative medium are actresses, make-up artists, technicians, extras, scholarship holders.

All have described similar behaviors during filming.

One hand on the crotch, on the buttocks or chest.

Phrases of a sexual nature and totally out of place and, sometimes, insistent grunts and snorts a few inches from them.

According to the testimonies collected by Mediapart, these acts were committed in full view of all, with no desire to hide.

The statements also point to laughter or complacency from the production teams.

"Without warning, Gérard Depardieu put his hand under my dress, I felt his fingers trying to reach my panties," an extra told the French media, on condition of anonymity.

The events she describes occurred in New York in December 2014, during the filming of the film

by director Jean Emmanuel Godart.

She was 24 years old and decided to complain to the production team, as confirmed by Isabel Butel, a wardrobe assistant present at the recordings and who also spoke to Mediapart.

The reaction from the set, she remembers, shocked her.

“It was like: 'Oh, it's Gérard, he's a bit provocative,'” she says, adding that “everyone” saw the discomfort.

The investigative medium, which began collecting testimonies in February 2021, has indicated that nine of the 20 filmmakers and producers contacted have not responded.

The other 11 affirm that they have not been informed of inappropriate behavior during filming or that they do not remember or see this type of act.

Only one of them, the director of the films

(2008) and

(2013), Fabien Onteniente, has said that he had been alerted by a casting director that Depardieu "was heavy with girls".

When two extras went to see him directly to complain, one of them crying, she says that she scolded the famous French actor.

The lawyers for the 74-year-old

interpreter of

The actor did not wish to answer the questions related to the accusation, "which mixes very varied topics, some of them very subjective and/or moral judgments," according to the Parisian firm Cabinet Temime.

The investigation emphasizes the imbalance of power mentioned by women, who were mostly younger than him and were beginning to gain a foothold in the world of cinema.

None of the 13 who have agreed to give their testimony has filed a formal complaint with the courts.