Gérard Depardieu, targeted by accusations of sexual violence which he disputes, will not be part of the promotion of his next film Umami, whose release is maintained on May 17, the distributor and the producer indicated on Friday. “We therefore continue to defend this film and Gérard Depardieu is not associated with its promotion”, they write in a press release, anxious not “to reduce to nothing the hundreds of hours of work and the considerable energy which has been deployed by all the people who took part in a film, shot between France and Japan”.
Distributor and producer want to “restate that abusive behavior is not acceptable in the world of cinema or elsewhere” and that they bring their “support to all victims of violence or sexual harassment”. They assure that “there were no incidents during the filming of the film” after having “questioned all the teams”: “no one reported any inappropriate behavior on the part of Gérard Depardieu during the filming” .
Mediapart recently revealed the testimonies of 13 women accusing Gérard Depardieu of sexual violence, already indicted for suspicion of rape and sexual assault on actress Charlotte Arnould. The Paris prosecutor’s office had indicated at the time of these revelations that it had “not been the recipient of any new complaint to date”. The prosecution had also specified that the investigation opened in July 2020 following the complaint of this actress was continuing.
The 74-year-old actor “formally denies all the charges likely to fall under criminal law”, for his part informed Mediapart of the Temime law firm, responsible for defending him. “Among those who spoke to Mediapart, there are some for whom the facts are not prescribed. I hope some will be ready to file a complaint,” said Charlotte Arnould, 27, who spoke for the first time this week in the press, in Elle magazine.
According to its trailer, Umami tells the story of a chef – Gérard Depardieu – who leaves for Japan to find himself. The cast also includes Pierre Richard and Sandrine Bonnaire, among others.