French Actor Gerard Depardieu Accused of Sexual Assault and Rape

French actor Gerard Depardieu was accused of sexual harassment and rape by an actress in her 20s. Depardieu, one of France's most recognizable actors around the world, denied the allegations.

An unnamed 22-year-old French actress came forward to the French news service BFMTV, accusing Depardieu of rape, reports the BBC. The woman, who said she knew Depardieu before the attack, claims the Cryano de Bergerac actor raped her at one of his Paris residences. Her agent said she was left "devastated" by the attack.

The woman went to police in Lambesc, a town in the South of France. The case was then taken to prosecutors in Paris.

"I had a long meeting with Gérard Depardieu and I am absolutely convinced his innocence will be established," Depardieu's lawyer, Herve Temime, told France Info Radio. Temime added that Depardieu is "shaken" by the allegations, which are against "everything he is and respects."

Depardieu is the second major French film figure accused of sexual assault this summer after two women came forward to accuse The Fifth Element director Luc Besson of sexual assault.

A 27-year-old actress accused Besson of raping her in a Paris hotel in May, reports CBS News. Another woman, a 49-year-old casting director, said he assaulted her whenever they were in an elevator together.

Besson's lawyer called the second allegation "fantasist accusations" and said the director denied any "inappropriate or reprehensible behavior."

In France, the Me Too movement has not moved as quickly as it did through Hollywood and has been met with some resistance. In January, Catherine Deneuve and 99 other French women signed an open letter published in Le Monde, saying the Me Too movement was going too far and promoted a new "puritanism" against French traditions.

"Rape is a crime, but trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cack-handedly, is not -- nor is being gentlemanly a macho attack," the letter reads. "Men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone's knee or try to steal a kiss."

Women are "sufficiently aware that the sexual urge is by its nature wild and aggressive. But we are also clear-eyed enough not to confuse an awkward attempt to pick someone up with a sexual attack," the letter continued, CBS News reports.

Depardieu, 69, is one of France's global film icons and an Oscar-nominee for his role in 1990's Cryano de Bergrac. He has more than 200 credits to his name and recently starred in Netflix's French political series Marseille. His other films include The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), 1900 (1976), The Last Metro (1980), Danton (1983) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992).

Photo credit: THIERRY ROGE/AFP/Getty Images