'Rude and inappropriate': Sophie Marceau remembers Depardieu

PARIS

Sophie Marceau, one of France's best-loved actors, said in an interview published last week that film icon Gerard Depardieu, accused of rape, was "rude and inappropriate" when they worked together, and targeted women with low-level jobs on set, not the stars.

Marceau, whose career started in France and internationally with "La Boum" (The Party) in 1980 when she was 13, has since starred in dozens of films and directed a few more.

She worked with Depardieu on the set of "Police" in 1985, a film noir involving a jaded policeman and a mysterious woman. Depardieu's attitude was "rude and inappropriate," she told Paris Match weekly magazine.

"He didn't target great actresses, he went more for low-level assistants," she said. "Vulgarity and provocation have always been his tradecraft," Marceau said.

"Everybody loved him for it," Marceau observed, but said she publicly denounced his behavior which she found "unbearable," already at the time.

But "many people turned on me, trying to make it look like I was being a nuisance," she said.

Depardieu, who has made more than 200 films and television series, was charged with rape in 2020 and has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women.

The actor, who turned 75 last week, has faced fresh scrutiny over sexually explicit comments including one about a young girl riding a horse during a 2018 trip to North Korea that were broadcast for the first time in a documentary on national television this month.

The footage caused condemnation from feminist groups and across the political spectrum.