In North Korea, even 10-year-old girls are sexually harassed… France’s ‘national actor’ exposed

It was revealed that French actor Gerard Depardieu (74) sexually harassed women when he visited North Korea. It is known that the targets of sexual harassment included a 10-year-old girl.

According to foreign media such as the BBC on the 8th (local time), the weekly investigative program of France 2 TV, a French public broadcaster, aired a documentary of approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes long digging into Depardieu’s sexual crimes the previous day.

This documentary shows Depardieu making obscene remarks to women when he visited North Korea in 2018 at the invitation of the ‘9/9’ event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the North Korean regime. Even though Depardieu knew she was filming, she continued to sexually harass the female interpreter, including telling her, “I have a girdle in my pants.” Even seeing a teenager riding a horse at a riding range caused her to spout sexual comments.

This documentary also includes interviews with actors who previously accused Depardieu of sexual assault and testimony from film industry figures, including directors. Depardieu has already been investigated by prosecutors on charges of sexually assaulting an actor in his 20s in 2018. He was released once in 2019 due to insufficient evidence, but during his re-investigation, critical evidence was discovered and the investigation began again in 2020. This case is still ongoing.

Actress Sarah Brooks revealed that Depardieu put his hand down her shorts on the set of a TV drama in Marseille in 2015. When he complained to the production team, Depardieu said, “I thought you wanted to succeed,” and everyone else just laughed.

Also, French comedy actress Helen Darras confessed that while on set in 2007, Depardieu asked her if she wanted to go to his dressing room, and when she refused, he groped her on the spot. She said that at the age of 26, he did not want to be blacklisted from the film industry, so he did not disclose the damage. The documentary claimed that a total of 16 people have testified that they have suffered damage so far.

Depardieu won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in France in 1990 for the film ‘Cyrano’. She has remained active to this day, appearing in over 200 films.

Hankyung.com reporter Jinyoung-gi [email protected]