French actress who said Gerard Depardieu ‘slid his big paw under my skirt’ during filming, ‘jumps to her death from a bridge over the Seine’ on the day documentary into the actor’s ‘lewd conduct’ is broadcast

• Emmanuelle Debever was a promising talent in French cinema in the 1980s
• Her death coincided with release of documentary examining Depardieu claims

An actress who claimed Gerard Depardieu slid his hand up her skirt during filming has reportedly killed herself by jumping into the River Seine the same day a documentary on sexual assault allegations against the French actor was broadcast. 

Emmanuelle Debever, who was a mainstay in French cinema in the 1980s but later pulled back from the limelight, acted with compatriot Depardieu in the 1982 film Danton. 

In 2019, she posted a short message to Facebook in which she said her co-star tried to grope her as they rode in a carriage on set.

‘This monster allowed himself to enjoy plenty during filming, making the most of the intimacy inside a carriage.

‘Sliding his fat paw under my skirt to, in his words, ‘make me feel better’… me, I didn’t allow it to happen,’ the post said, accompanied by an image of them together.

Her allegation was included in a new documentary entitled ‘Gerard Depardieu: The Fall of the Ogre’, broadcast December 7, on the TV channel France 2, which covered a range of other claims made against the 74-year-old.

French media later reported that Debever – described by Elle as ‘one of the first women to accuse Depardieu’ had died the very same day, aged 60, with Liberation reporting she had committed suicide, citing the National Audiovisual Institute.

Emmanuelle Debever, who was a mainstay in French cinema in the 1980s but later pulled back from the limelight, acted with compatriot Depardieu in the 1982 film Danton

French actor Gerard Depardieu poses during a photocall for the second season of the French TV show “Marseille” broadcasted and co-produced by US streaming video giant Netflix, on February 18, 2018 in Marseille

In 2019, Debever posted a short message to Facebook in which she said her co-star tried to grope her as they rode in a carriage on set. ‘This monster allowed himself to enjoy plenty during filming, making the most of the intimacy inside a carriage. ‘Sliding his fat paw under my skirt to, in his words, ‘make me feel better’… me, I didn’t allow it to happen,’ the post said, accompanied by an image of them together

Now, Depardieu faces a litany of sex abuse allegations, all of which he strongly denies. 

French actress Charlotte Arnould in late 2021 publicly accused the actor, a family friend, of raping her twice in 2018 when she was 22 and anorexic. She said she weighed 37 kilos at the time.

He was placed under formal investigation in December 2020 but not jailed.

Then in April this year, French investigative website Mediapart published a report in which 13 other women accused him of molesting them between 2004 and 2022.

One of them, actress Helene Darras, in September filed a sexual assault complaint against Depardieu over an incident during a film shoot in 2007.

And in addition to digging up these claims, the documentary aired last week by France 2 showed the actor on a 2018 trip to North Korea repeatedly making explicit sexual comments in the presence of a female interpreter and sexualising a small girl riding a horse.

Several individuals in France’s film and media landscape have appeared to admit to wider problems of sexual harassment within the industry.

‘We are all a little guilty,’ Marc Missonnier, the head of the syndicate of French cinema producers, told France 2.

‘There was a certain tolerance, which was a mistake.’

Actress Anouk Grinberg, who has known Depardieu for decades, spoke out for the first time in October.

‘Anyone who has ever worked with him knows he assaults women,’ the 60-year-old told Elle magazine, but people did not denounce him for fear it would damage their careers.

‘Everybody allowed him to be a monster,’ she told France Inter radio on Monday.

She called for an end to ‘the other monstrosity… people in cinema who are indifferent to the harm done to women, to the humiliation they are subjected to.’

Depardieu is seen in 2013

French actress Charlotte Arnould (pictured) went public with her accusation that Depardieu, 74, raped her in his Paris mansion. Ms Arnould, 33, renounced her legal right to anonymity at the end of 2021, to protest at how long the investigation is taking

Speaking in October, Depardieu flatly denied all the allegations of sexual assault and mistreatment of women he has faced.

Accusing enemies of subjecting him to a ‘lynching’ in the media, the 74-year-old expressed his anger in an open letter in French newspaper Le Figaro.

‘Never, never have I abused a woman,’ he wrote.

‘Hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother’s tummy.’

‘All this is affecting me,’ said Depardieu. ‘Worse, it is extinguishing me.’

Depardieu said Ms Arnould, whom he has known since she was a little girl, had consented to sexual relations with him.

‘Between us there was neither constraint nor violence, nor protests,’ he wrote, claiming that Arnould was angry because he had refused to give her a chance to perform on stage with him.

Depardieu went on to admit that his often drunk behaviour might have been hurtful and shocking, but said: ‘I am neither a rapist nor a predator.’

Ms Arnould renounced her legal right to anonymity at the end of 2021, to protest at how long the investigation was taking, following Depardieu being charged with rape and sexual assault.

Emmanuelle Debever was perhaps best known for her role in the 1983 film ‘A Brutal Game’ by Jean-Claude Brisseau – who himself was convicted of sexual assault prior to his death in 2019.

‘I would have liked him to direct me more gently. I was just starting out, completely passionate about my profession as an actress,’ Debever said of Brisseau, but added: ‘He never behaved badly towards me.’

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