Gerard Depardieu’s Legion d’Honneur – France’s highest award – could be stripped from film star after he was accused of sexual assault

• French star seen making sexual comments in a documentary aired last week
• Report has sparked ‘#MeToo moment in French cinema’, French media says 

French film legend Gerard Depardieu could be stripped of his France’s highest accolade after the star was charged with rape and faces scrutiny over new comments broadcast in a TV documentary, the culture minister said on Friday.

Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak said the Grand Chancery of the Legion of Honour would initiate a ‘disciplinary procedure’ to decide whether to strip Depardieu, 74, of the award after the new documentary was released last Thursday.

The actor is heard in ‘The Fall of the Ogre’ repeatedly making explicit sexual comments in the presence of a female interpreter and sexualising a ten-year-old girl riding a horse. It was aired on December 7 on France 2 television.

Ms Abdul-Malak said she spoke with the Grand Chancellor, who will now decide whether to strip the actor of his award. ‘Directors will decide if he has roles in films in the future or not,’ Abdul-Malak told reporters in the southern town of Moissac.

‘I don’t think he has many offers arriving now on his desk.’

Depardieu is separately facing rape and sexual assault charges in his home country. 

The actor was charged with rape in 2020 and has also faced 13 accusations of sexual harassment or assault. He maintains his innocence.

Depardieu receives the Legion d’honneur from then-President Jacques Chirac (left) in 1996

Actor Gerard Depardieu poses for photographers during a photo call for the film Valley of Love, at the 68th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 22, 2015

The shocking new documentary, which is said to show Depardieu behaving inappropriately, has drawn attention back to a string of sexual assault allegations brought against the actor between 2004 and 2022.

‘The Fall of the Ogre’ showed the actor on a 2018 trip to North Korea. The film begins with the 74-year-old actor ogling a woman and saying: ‘Oh là là, très belle’, as reported by The Telegraph.

It also shows a seemingly intoxicated Depardieu making a number of explicit comments to make himself laugh, according to the report. And when the actor visits a horse riding centre, he reportedly remarks that children riding around the enclosure are ‘sl**s’.

He is reported to ask his female interpreter: ‘Why don’t you get on a horse? It does you good, you know. Generally, women who ride like a lot of other things, there’s a life in it.’

He is also reported to have turned to her after weighing himself in one scene, commenting: ‘124 kilos, and right now I’m not erect, erect is 126. I’ve got a beam in my pants.’

In her comments to reporters, Ms Abdul-Malak denounced ‘an attitude which is intended to be joking and provocative, but is in fact disrespectful and undignified and shames France, because he is a monument of cinema throughout the world.’ 

She added that the comments broadcast in the France 2 report were ‘absolutely shocking’ and she was ‘disgusted’ by his behaviour.

She suggested he could now face losing France’s top award as ‘a Legion of Honour distinguishes a man, an artist, an attitude, values,’ she said. 

Depardieu was awarded the honour by then-President Jacques Chirac in 1996.

The Canadian province of Quebec on Wednesday stripped Depardieu of its top honour over his ‘scandalous’ comments against women in the France 2 report. 

The new documentary also features testimony from French actor Helene Darras, who has accused Depardieu of groping her while they were working together on the film Disco in 2007. Darras, who was an extra, was 26 at the time of the alleged incident.

Paris prosecutors confirmed earlier this month that she had filed a sexual assault complaint against Depardieu in September.

The documentary has sparked what French media is calling a ‘#MeToo moment in French cinema’.

France24 wrote on Thursday: ‘For more than a year after the rape allegations against French actor Gerard Depardieu, the film industry shrugged its shoulders and the cinematic legend with more than 200 titles to his name continued working.’

Depardieu was placed under formal investigation in December 2020 but not jailed.

In late 2021, French actress Charlotte Arnould came forward and accused the actor of raping her twice when she was 22 and suffering with anorexia.

In April this year, Mediapart published a report detailing accusations from 13 other women between 2004 and 2022.

Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak said the Grand Chancery of the Legion of Honour would initiate a ‘disciplinary procedure’ to decide whether to strip Depardieu of the award

‘Gerard Depardieu, the fall of the Ogre’ shows the 74-year-old French actor making several misogynistic remarks and seemingly unwelcome sexual advances during a 2018 tour, according to a report (File Photo) 

The Legion d’honneur was founded in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France.

The institution was part of a wider ambition to reform the state, offering new incentives and rewards for accomplished individuals within French culture.

This was also reflected in prizes issued to leading figures in the sciences, and the civil dignity of the Marshals of the Empire for leading generals from 1804.

The Legion d’honneur is made up of three ranks – chevalier, officier, commandeur – and two high offices – grand officier and grand croix.

It is today a Presidential award that can be given to non-French citizens ‘in recognition of actions benefitting the country of France or, more broadly, achievements which uphold its ideals.’

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