Gerard Depardieu has been summoned by the French police for questioning in connection with new accusations of sexual assault, reported AFP.
Depardieu, 75, was being questioned by police at a police station in Paris' 14th arrondissement over allegations by two women that he had assaulted them - one on the set of 2021 and the other during other shoots in 2014
His lawyer, Christian Saint-Palais, confirmed that the questioning had ended.
“Police custody is over. He is no longer detained at the police station," Saint-Palais said.
The first woman, a set designer, said Depardieu assaulted her when she was on the crew of the feature film Les Volets Verts (The Green Blinds) in 2022. She filed a formal police complaint in February.
Earlier this year, the 53-year-old woman told investigative website Mediapart that the actor first made indecent advances to her and later assaulted her.
She says Depardieu grabbed her "brutally" and wrapped his legs around her with "phenomenal force" so she couldn't move. He then touched her all over her body while making obscene comments.
The victim said she felt trapped, panicked and struggling to breathe. She said she felt herself being pulled back and someone else pulling Depardieu, and said his bodyguards pulled him away from her.
The second woman, who was 24 at the time of the alleged assault, filed a police complaint this year alleging Depardieu grabbed her body and made obscene and "inappropriate" remarks when she was working as an assistant on set of the film "The Magician and the Siamese" (Le Magician et le Siamois) in 2015.
Police confirmed that the April 29 interrogations were related to those cases. Depardieu, through his lawyers, has denied all charges.
In 2020, police opened a formal investigation against Depardieu for rape and sexual assault in another case after actress Charlotte Arnold claimed he raped her at his Paris home in 2018.
Arnold, who went to police more than five years ago, accused Depardieu of raping and sexually assaulting her on two occasions at his Paris home in 2018. At the time, the actress was 22 and Depardieu was 70.
Arnold told a documentary last year that she was anorexic at the time of the alleged attack and it was "absolutely terrifying".
In an open letter to Le Figaro in October, Depardieu denied all the allegations, saying any meeting with Arnold was consensual. He claimed he had been lynched by a "media court" and wrote: "I have never, ever assaulted a woman."
Another sexual assault complaint was filed last year by Ellen Daras, an actress who alleged that Depardieu groped and propositioned her while filming a movie in 2007. The case was dismissed because the deadline to file a lawsuit expired. accusations.
Depardieu, one of the most famous French actors, has appeared in over 170 films and gained international fame with English-language roles./BGNES