The famous French actor says Depardieu’s sexual assault case highlights the need for change

PARIS (AP) – Renowned French actress Anouk Grinberg says the sexual assault trial against fellow actor Gérard Depardieu reflects the slow path to awareness of sexual abuse in France, particularly in the film industry, after years of silence.

Grinberg, 61, who has appeared in about 30 films, spoke on Monday at an event that was scheduled to begin before Depardieu’s trial, but which was postponed until March due to concerns about the 75-year-old actor’s health.

She has known Depardieu for more than three decades, appearing with him in the 1991 film and in the film “Green Shutters.” The trial centers on the alleged sexual assault of two women, a production designer and an assistant director, on the set of the latter film of 2021.

Depardieu denied any wrongdoing.

In recent months, Grinberg has decided to speak out about the need for change, joining other French actors who have decided to do so shed light on the hideous underside country’s industry.

“I witnessed this for several years … with no reaction, like everyone else,” she told the Associated Press. “Because the violence overwhelmed me, and also because we didn’t think of it as violence at the time.”

But with the #MeToo movement and more women speaking out, something “has changed” in recent years, she said. “And I measured that violence.”

Grinberg also said that she personally knows actress Charlotte Arnould, who in a separate case accuses Depardieu of two rapes that occurred in August 2018. In 2020, Depardieu was charged with rape and sexual assault in the case, but a judge has not yet decided whether to take the case to trial.

“What is complicated in cases of sexual violence is that in most cases the women do not move, they do not defend themselves. And it’s not because they agree, but because they are simply paralyzed. Something died inside them, paralyzed with fear and disgust,” Grinberg said.

“This is where we need to educate society and the justice system,” she added.

Grinberg described in detail Depardieu’s obscene comments that she said he made on the set of the film “Green Shutters.”

“Society as a whole has really been a great accomplice to these actions, these excesses and these deviations,” Grinberg said. “I have witnessed a witness on a film set who remained silent or chuckled at this verbal abuse.”

She said many in the cinema world remain silent because they fear they will no longer be able to work if they speak out against influential figures in the industry.

Depardieu’s trial shows that times have changed, especially since the alleged victims did not play significant roles. The “little hands” working in the cinema industry “say enough is enough. It’s really enough,” Grinberg said.

Earlier this year, French actress Judith Godrèche reached out to the French film industry “face the truth” on sexual and physical violence during the Cesar Awards ceremony, the French version of the Oscars. “We can decide that men accused of rape will no longer rule (French) cinema,” Godrèche said.

Last year she announced it was one of France’s leading actresses, Adèle Haenel departure from the French film industry which she condemned for “complacency towards sexual aggressors.”

Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes entry “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” published an open letter in Telerama magazine in which she stated that Cannes and other pillars of the French film industry are “ready to do anything to defend their rapist bosses.” “