14 DAY TRIAL // A couple of days ago, French actor Gerard Depardieu made headlines around the world for what can only be described as the most humiliating moment of his life: he was taken off a flight after urinating on the floor. Actor Edouard Baer, who was with him at the time, is offering an explanation for it.
In a statement to the French press, cited by the BBC, Baer vouches Depardieu was not intoxicated when the incident occurred – on the contrary, he was “stone cold sober.”
As Baer puts it, Depardieu has prostrate issues of which he’d already informed staff on the plane, which had been held for two hours on the ground.
Because he wasn’t allowed to use the lavatory and since he couldn’t last without going, Depardieu used a bottle, Baer says.
Eventually, it overflowed. The actor informed the flight attendant that he really needed to use a toilet, to which she replied he had to wait for another 15 minutes.
Obviously, Depardieu couldn’t wait, so he just went and relieved himself on the floor. However, alcohol was not a factor.
“Gerard was upset at this and offered to clean up the mess. He has prostate problems and it was very worrying and humiliating for him,” Baer is cited as saying.
“He was also stone-cold sober at the time. This is not the way he usually behaves,” Depardieu’s actor friend further says.
As we also informed you at the time, following the incident, the plane was held to the ground for another two hours, while a crew was called to clean up the mess.
Depardieu and his friend had to catch another flight from Paris to Dublin.
The other day, Anderson Cooper put Depardieu on his RidicuList segment, lamenting that all his work in movies so far will probably come in second to this scandalous story in the press.
Still, he couldn’t fight a giggle because of it – see the video here.