PARIS – French actor Gérard Depardieuwho is on trial for the alleged sexual assaults of two women on a film set in 2021, will not appear Monday before the Paris criminal court for health reasons, his lawyer said.

Depardieu, who previously denied any wrongdoing, is accused of using “violence, coercion, surprise or threat” in the alleged assault, which prosecutors say took place on the set of “The Green Shutters”

Lawyer Jérémie Assous said that doctors believe that the actor’s state of health does not allow him to appear Monday at the opening of the trial.

Depardieu “is deeply affected and unfortunately his doctors are not allowing him to appear at the hearing,” Assous told France Info radio.

Assous indicated that he would ask the court to postpone the trial because his client “wants to come, wants to express himself”.

Prosecutors say that in both cases, the victims said the 75-year-old actor pinned them between his legs and groped their buttocks, genitals, chests and breasts over their clothes.

The trial was scheduled as France continues to face sexual violence in the wake of the #MeToo movement which has struggled to find traction, particularly in the cinema industry.

Prosecutors say there are witnesses on the set

One of the victims was identified as a 53-year-old decorator. The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual assault without their consent. His lawyer did not respond to AP’s email about the matter.

According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the woman told investigators that she had first heard sexual remarks from Depardieu and then that one day, as she walked in front of him, he had “grabbed her, pulled her towards him, blocked with her legs and groped”. waist, hips and chest, accompanying his gestures with obscene remarks.”

Three people witnessed it, prosecutors said, confirming that the woman had tried to free herself from Depardieu’s grip and that she seemed “shocked”. A psychiatric examination granted him seven days’ leave.

After the incident, it was agreed that Depardieu would apologize. But in a television interview broadcast on Saturday, the woman said the actor was furious and blamed him for causing trouble. Prosecutors said witnesses confirmed that Depardieu’s comments did not constitute an apology.

In the interview with French online news site Mediapart, the decorator – who spoke on camera but only gave her first name – said the alleged assault had taken a toll on her life personal and professional for at least a year and a half. She said she couldn’t sleep well, suffered from anxiety attacks and had lost weight.

The woman, according to prosecutors, said it took her a while to file a complaint, but decided to do so after hearing on television that there had never been an incident during the filming.

The month before the alleged attack, another woman also working on the set of the film had filed a complaint against Depardieu, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

The director’s assistant told investigators that Depardieu touched her buttocks several times. She had expressed her disapproval and in return, Depardieu, according to her, had insulted her. A psychiatrist also granted him six days’ leave.

Assous, Depardieu’s lawyer, told the AP in an email Saturday that “the witnesses and evidence that (Depardieu) will produce will demonstrate that he is the target of false accusations.”

Macron and certain cinema actors support Depardieu

Despite the allegations against Depardieu, many have given him their support, including French President Emmanuel Macron.

At the end of last year, 56 French artists, writers and producers published an essay defend the movie starbelieving that when “Gérard Depardieu is thus targeted, it is the art (of cinema) which is attacked”.

Their call came just weeks after national channel France 2 broadcast a documentary depicting accusations of sexual misconduct by 16 women against Depardieu, and showed the actor making obscene remarks and gestures during a trip to North Korea in 2018.

In the footage, Depardieu can be seen making moans and sexual comments in front of women, including a girl around 10 years old who is horseback riding. He can also be seen posing for a photo, saying he was “touching the butt” of a North Korean interpreter next to him.

He was charged in 2021 with rape and sexual assault after authorities revived an initially abandoned 2018 investigation, following allegations by actress Charlotte Arnould.

In an open letter published in the conservative-leaning newspaper Le Figaro, Depardieu said last year: “I have never, ever abused a woman. »

The actor has long been considered a national icon in France. He was a global ambassador for French cinema and achieved international fame with several roles in Hollywood.

Earlier this year, actress Judith Godrèche called on the French film industry to “face the truth” on sexual violence and physical abuse during the César ceremony, the French version of the Oscars.

Godrèche previously alleged that two prominent filmmakers sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager, sending new shockwaves through the industry.

More recently, the ongoing trial of 50 men accused of raping a woman who had previously been drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband has shaken the country. Protests spread across the country last weekend in support of the victim, a mother and grandmother in their early sixties, who became a hero to many victims of sexual violence for insisting that his trial be open to the public.

Feminist groups have called for protests outside the courthouse ahead of Monday’s hearings.