French President Emmanuel Macron has clarified comments he made last year about Gérard Depardieu which seemed to suggest his support for the actor in the face of a tide of sexual assault accusations, which the latter has denied.
Speaking in an interview with French women’s magazine Elle, published on Wednesday, Macron suggested his comments had been misinterpreted and that he was not “complacent” about the issues around sexual harassment and abuse.
“I just a want a respect for our principles, such as the presumption of innocence. These same principles which will allow justice to rule next October and that is a good thing.” he said.
Depardieu is due to be tried in October on charges of sexual assault on two women on a film set in 2021, while accusations of sexual assault and rape by actress Charlotte Arnould are also making their way through the courts.
In the backdrop a number of other women have accused Depardieu of sexual harassment and abuse. The actor has denied all the allegations.
Macron drew criticism last December when he appeared to come out in support of Depardieu. The actor was in the middle of a media storm at the time following the broadcast of an episode of investigative show Complément d’Enquete probing multiple sexual assault accusations against the actor and other acts of inappropriate behavior.
Talking on chat show C à Vous, the president suggested Depardieu was the victim of “a manhunt”, adding he was a “great admirer of Depardieu” and that the actor “had made France proud.”
In the same interview, he also publicly dismissed then Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak’s suggestion that Depardieu should be stripped of his Legion of Honor.
“I used the expression ‘manhunt’ in a gender-neutral way,” Macron told Elle. I don’t like media trials, justice by tweets, and in general. We are in a society which seeks to kill people in a few days, and then forgets them.”
Macron said his stance was “uncompromising” when it came to tackling the issues of “rape”, “domination” and what he called “this culture of brutality”.
“My priority has always been the protection of victims, and this is also the case for the Depardieu affair,” he said.
Macron’s comments and interview comes amid a fresh #MeToo wave in France sparked by actress Judith Godrèche’s decision to speak up about her underage relationship with Benoit Jacquot in the 1980s, when she was 14-years-old and he was 39-years-old.
Godrèche, who says she was under his influence and that the relationship was wrong, filed a police complaint against the Farewell, My Queen and Diary of a Chambermaid director in February for “rape with constraint”. He has denied the accusations.
Her actions and subsequent campaign to end a culture of silence around harassment in the French film business have unleashed a wave of #MeToo allegations from within the cinema world as well as other public and private walks of life.
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