Last Wednesday, veteran French actor Gérard Depardieu confirmed that he would be taking on the role of alleged serial womaniser Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a forthcoming film by Abel Ferrara.
“I don’t like him, so I’ll do it.”The fiercely independent 60-year-old American director is himself no stranger to controversy, whose earlier films include such charming titles as “9 Lives of a Wet Pussy” and “Driller Killer”. He has gained much critical acclaim over the intervening years and has also worked with many French actors, including Marion Cotillard, Juliette Binoche, Mylène Farmer and Isabelle Adjani (who also stars in his forthcoming DSK biopic as Anne Sinclair).Depardieu’s announcement came in the course of an interview he gave to RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse) following a public appearance in Geneva. Similarly to a number of his recent appearances in public, the actor appeared somewhat out of sorts and rambling in his pronouncements.
“He (Strauss-Kahn) is not likeable… I think that he’s a bit like all French; a bit arrogant. I don’t like French people much either, especially those like him.”
When questioned on the series of incidents that led to the former IMF director’s very public downfall, Depardieu answered without finishing his sentences: “We can all have dirty nonsense going on in our heads, but… And moreover, it’s so well known that people who have such enormous power as money, the IMF, or like top judges, can be people who are…”
Depardieu was, however, quite clear in expressing his deep disdain for Strauss-Kahn: “Something that’s really un-likeable about him is when he’s walking, when he’s with his hand in his pocket.”
On the same evening he gave his somewhat incoherent interview, Depardieu acted as French narrator for a unique performance in Latin of the opera Oedipus Rex at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. “It was an ill and aspirin-doped version of Depardieu that appeared on stage,” reported a Swiss television journalist, “where he intervened to tell the story in French with.. a few pauses.”