The French President Emmanuel Macronstated that the Gerard Depardieuaccused of rape, has become the target of a “manhunter” as the actor faces a new investigation into sexist comments.

“You will never see me participating in a manhuntMacron told France 5 broadcaster when asked about the possible stripping of a state award from the actor. “I hate this kind of thing,” he said, adding that “you don’t strip someone of the Legion of Honor based on a report».

The prize, the most prestigious the government can bestow and which Depardieu received in 1996, “is not a moral tool,” Macron said, adding that the actor “makes France proud” and that he himself was a big fan. of.

Last week, the culture minister said the actor’s comments had embarrassed France and there was a possibility he could be stripped of his Legion of Honor award.

A television report released this month that featured footage of the actor making sexist comments reignited a debate about sexism in French cinema.

Broadcaster France 2 showed the actor on a 2018 trip to North Korea making repeated sexual comments in the presence of a female interpreter. After the screening of the documentary his family denounced an “unprecedented conspiracy” against him.

Depardieu, an icon of French cinema with more than 200 films to his name, was accused of rape in 2020 and has been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting more than a dozen women.

Depardieu denied the allegations of rape and sexual assault in an open letter published in Le Figaro in October. “I have never, ever abused a woman“, wrote the actor. “In the court of the media, in the lynching reserved for me, I have only my word to defend myself».

Over the weekend, a Belgian municipality stripped Depardieu of his honorary citizen title, several days after the Canadian province of Quebec revoked the top honor over his “scandalous” comments against women.