Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: JENS KALAENE / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP 16:03 p.m., October 02, 2023

In the "context" of accusations of rape and sexual assault, Gérard Depardieu "does not accept any project" and has decided to cancel his participation in the next animated film by Michel Hazanavicius. The actor was to lend his voice to the feature film "The Most Precious Of Goods".

The actor Gerard Depardieu "does not accept any project", starting with the loan of his voice to one of the characters of the next animated film of Michel Hazanavicius, in the "context" of accusations of rape and sexual assault, we learned Monday from his agent. "He has decided not to accept any project for the moment in the current context," Bertrand de Labbey told AFP.

At first and "by mutual agreement, Gérard Depardieu and Michel Hazanavicius have decided to renounce (the) participation (of Gérard Depardieu, editor's note) for (the) next film" of the director, he added, confirming information from the daily Le Parisien.

Depardieu indicted since 2020 for "rape" and "assault"

The actor was to lend his voice to The Most Precious Goods, which tells the story of a couple of Polish loggers who, during the Second World War, take in a baby fallen from a train taking deportees to the Auschwitz camp. "Only tests had been done," says Bertrand de Labbey.

The actor has been indicted since 2020 for "rape" and "sexual assault" on the actress Charlotte Arnould, who denounced at the end of August 2018 two rapes at the Paris home of the star. In the summer of 2020, she obtained that the investigation, first closed by the Paris prosecutor's office in June 2019, be entrusted to an investigating judge.

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In April, Médiapart revealed the testimonies of 13 women accusing Gérard Depardieu of sexual violence. The Paris prosecutor's office had indicated at the time of these revelations to have "not been the recipient to date of any new complaint". The prosecutor's office had also specified that the investigation opened in July 2020 following the complaint of the actress was continuing.

In an open letter published Sunday, the comedian has breached the accusations against him, denouncing a "lynching" orchestrated by the "media court" and ensuring to be "neither rapist nor predator". "Never have I abused a woman," he wrote.