Photo: CTK/AP/Andrei Stasevich
Paris - Famed French actor Gérard Depardieu has announced that he is making available his high French state decoration, the Legion of Honour. On Friday, Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak said she had ordered disciplinary proceedings that could result in the withdrawal of the decoration. This is due to recently aired footage from Depardieu's 2018 visit to the DPRK, where the actor made derogatory comments about women. Depardieu has also faced criticism and investigations over sexual assault allegations.
In early December, France 2 broadcast footage of the actor's visit to North Korea in 2018. Depardieu is seen making offensive remarks and mimicking sex acts while meeting women. "Women love riding a horse (because) their clitoris rubs against the saddle (...) and they enjoy it tremendously," Depardieu told AFP.
Culture Minister Malak said on Friday that the well-known actor was embarrassing France with his behaviour and that his remarks in the DPRK were absolutely shocking. She had a disciplinary procedure opened to decide whether to strip Depardieu of the Legion of Honour or at least suspend him from the honours corps. "The Legion of Honour honours a person, an artist, an approach, values," the minister said. Depardieu will be given the opportunity to defend his behaviour before the commission, the culture ministry chief added.
According to his lawyers, Depardieu is making available a decoration awarded to him by President Jacques Chirac in 1996. They said the Culture Minister had "hammered another nail in the coffin of the already dying presumption of innocence" and was participating in a "media lynching" of the actor. They criticise France 2 for broadcasting 'edited footage taken in an intimate and private sphere'.
CTK/Jana Černá
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