French actor Gérard Depardieu arrives for his trial in which he is charged with sexually assaulting two women during a film shoot in 2021, at the Paris criminal court in the Tribunal de Paris courthouse, on March 26, 2025. DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP
A French court was Thursday, October 2 examining accusations by actor Gérard Depardieu that a 2023 television report falsely portrayed him as making sexual comments about a young girl.
The case focuses on a dispute between Depardieu and a television show that in December 2023 aired a report that dented his public image and led a minister to say his behavior shamed France. The episode, titled "The Fall of the Ogre," included footage of him repeatedly making sexual comments about women during a trip to North Korea in 2018. In one section, he appears to make an obscene comment about a young girl riding a horse.
Lawyers for Depardieu and French writer Yann Moix, who was with him at the time, have argued the editing of the footage made it look like he was speaking about a child, whereas he was instead speaking about an adult. They add that the footage was filmed as part of a fiction movie they were shooting together in the Asian country.
From 2024
