The 27-year-old actress, who filed a complaint against Gérard Depardieu for two rapes in 2018, hopes that others will do like her. She speaks for the first time in the press.
Charlotte Arnould, the young actress who filed a complaint against Gérard Depardieu for two rapes in 2018, told the magazine Elle of Thursday that she hoped that others would do like her, after the testimonies of thirteen women in Mediapart on April 11.
“Among those who spoke to Mediapart, there are some for whom the facts are not prescribed. I hope that some will be ready to file a complaint,” said Charlotte Arnould, 27, who is speaking for the first time. in the press.
“There are now thirteen known testimonies, but in my opinion we are well below reality”. “Marine Turchi (Mediapart journalist, Editor’s note) says that since the investigation, she has continued to receive testimonies”.
“A great relief”
Gérard Depardieu was indicted on December 16, 2020 for “rape” and “sexual assault” after the complaint of the actress, who had denounced at the end of August 2018 two rapes at the Parisian home of the star.
She had obtained in the summer of 2020 that the investigation, first classified by the Paris prosecutor’s office in June 2019, be entrusted to an investigating judge. The Court of Appeal upheld the indictment in March 2022.
“I felt a great relief when the testimonials were published in Mediapart”, comments Charlotte Arnould. “Officially, I’m not alone anymore! It’s sad to come to this, but it also gives weight to my story and my case,” she says.
His “little father of cinema”
In the summer of 2018, the young woman, on the track of a career as a dancer but suffering from anorexia (she said she weighed “37 kilos” at the time), changed lanes and was selected for Passiona play directed by Fanny Ardant.
At his invitation, she goes to the actor, a “family friend”, aware of his “illness”, whom she considered her “little father of cinema” and in whom she “necessarily trusted”.
His complaint, filed in Lambesc (Bouches-du-Rhône), leaked to the press. She says she feared reprisals from Russian supporters of the actor. When her complaint is dismissed, Charlotte Arnould is “collapsed” but files a civil action and the investigation resumes.
“A huge omerta”
In December 2021, shocked to see that “nothing is happening” and that Gérard Depardieu continues his career “while I survive”, she reveals her identity on Twitter. “In the professional world, it was very chilly. There is a huge omerta”, she believes, angry at Fanny Ardant who speaks of “disenchantment in love”.
“All the powerful support each other. And then, Depardieu, it’s like wine, sausage: it’s France, we don’t touch it. On the sets, he farts, he says horrors, everything the world laughs, a little embarrassed … He imposes, he plays with it”, she regrets.
The 74-year-old actor “formally denies all the charges likely to fall under criminal law”, the Temime law firm, responsible for defending him, told Mediapart.
