'I didn’t want to be blacklisted at 26': Gerard Depardieu accused of sexual assault by second actress

PARIS, FRANCE: Gerard Depardieu is now being accused of sexual assault by a second actress after Helene Darras decided to go public after Charlotte Arnould. The former star alleged that Gerard sexually assaulted her on the set of the ‘Disco’ (2007).

Her complete interview about the incident will be broadcast on Thursday, December 7, over French TV.

Gerard Depardieu was accused of rape in 2018 

The first sexual charge against the actor was filed in 2018 when the ‘Crime Spree’ star was accused of rape. The case is still under investigation while Depardieu has pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, Darras will share her story on Complement d’Enquete, an investigative news show on France 2. As per local media outlets, the actress registered her case on September 10 with the Paris Prosecutor’s Office in Paris.

“He looked at me as if I were a piece of meat,” Darras said of Depardieu in an interview. She revealed that she was wearing a very tight dress as part of her costume during that time, and the French actor “came up to me and then passed his hand over my hips and buttocks.”

Darras shared the reason for not lodging the case at that time since she feared that her career would be jeopardized. “I was an extra. I hadn’t even finished theater school. I really wanted to be an actress and I didn’t want to be blacklisted at 26,” she told Complement d’Enquete.

The sexual assault case against not new for Depardieu, as the 74-year-old has faced multiple allegations of sexual assault over the years, reports Hollywood Reporter.

How many sexual assault cases does Gerard Depardieu face?

As per the Mediapart news website, at least 13 women has reported actor for sexual assault. Oscar-nominated Depardieu has denied all charges against him. He wrote an open letter in the French newspaper Le Figaro in October, “Never, ever have I abused a woman,” he penned.

“To the media court, to the lynching that has been reserved for me, I have only my word to defend myself," he added.

“I can no longer allow what I hear, what I have read about myself for several months,” he wrote, adding “Hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother in the stomach.” He also suggested that the woman who accused him of rape came up to his room “of her own free will.”