FRENCH FILM actor Gerard Depardieu was removed from a flight from Paris to Dublin on Tuesday evening after he urinated in the aisle just before takeoff.
The actor was on his way to the Republic, where he is to film the fourth instalment in the Astérix franchise, Astérix and Obélix: God Save Britannia.Outdoor scenes for the film, which has an estimated €50 million budget, are being shot in the Burren over the next four weeks.
Depardieu is playing Obélix but news that he was in a fix emerged after a passenger on the CityJet aircraft contacted a French radio station yesterday morning to complain about his behaviour on board the flight.
The passenger told the station that the 62-year-old star of films including Cyrano de Bergeracand the romantic comedy Green Cardstood up minutes before take-off and declared in a loud voice: "Je veux pisser. Je veux pisser."
He was asked by a flight attendant to take his seat, put on his seat belt and wait just 15 minutes until the aircraft reached its cruising altitude. However, Depardieu insisted he could not wait any longer.
“And there and then he stood up and did it on the floor,” the fellow passenger said. “We could see he had been drinking. The stewardess was dumbfounded. No one said anything. It all happened with courtesy. Depardieu sat back down, and the plane returned to the parking area to be cleaned.”
A spokesperson for national carrier Air France, which owns City- Jet, confirmed the passenger’s version of events: “He did indeed urinate in the plane.”
When contacted by The Irish Times,a CityJet spokeswoman said that while there had been an incident on the flight, it was against company policy to reveal the identity of the passenger involved. She said the aircraft, which was due to leave Paris for Dublin at 6.45pm, was delayed for just under two hours because of the incident.
She said that after the passenger refused to take his seat and “in effect, urinated in the plane”, the captain returned to the boarding gate, where security staff were waiting.
“The passenger in question was then off-loaded and airline staff cleaned the plane, which departed for Dublin at 8.35pm.”
She did not say whether the company intended to take further action in relation to the incident.
A spokesman for Octagon Productions, which is overseeing the film shoot in Co Clare, said it had no comment to make.
When contacted by this newspaper in the afternoon, Depardieu’s Paris-based agent said she was unable to comment on the specifics of the incident. “We don’t know anything about it. We don’t know what happened. We were on holiday and are only learning about it from the newspapers.”
