French actor and director Samuel Theis has been accused of rape by a crew member on his latest directorial project, They are chasing you (translation: I swear). He has since been fired from the project.
He is best known for his role as Samuel Maleski in the recent Golden Globe-winning film Anatomy of a Fall.
Diversity reports that the French paper Liberation reported Friday that the alleged assault happened at a party where the production rented the apartment on July 1, 2023.
The They are chasing you A crew member claims he was too drunk to consent to sexual intercourse with Theis. The crew member claims that he spent the night in the rented apartment and alleges that Theis raped him the next morning. Per DiversityTheis said their meeting was consensual.
Theis’ lawyer, Marie Dosé, said Diversity no one has contacted her about the ongoing investigation and she is not aware of the official complaint.
“The only investigation into this case was commissioned by the production and carried out by an independent organization. It was submitted in September and was 300 pages long – the conclusion was that there were no elements that would qualify what happened as a sexual assault,” Dosé told Diversity. She also shared that the witness claims Theis and the prosecutor were in a “tender moment.”
Samuel Theis in “Anatomy of the Fall”.
Neon / Courtesy of the Everett Collection
After the interaction, the crew member immediately left the production, according to Screen Daily, according to Telerama. The sudden departure prompted Avenue B Productions to monitor the rest of the production. Avenue B Productions producer Caroline Bonmarchand told Diversity the company then hired an outside organization to conduct an internal investigation within the cast and crew.
Bonmarchand and her team met with cast and crew members and decided to proceed with the final weeks of production, according to Diversity. Production continued with the assumption of Theis’s innocence until proven guilty. However, Theis was instructed that he would have to complete the project remotely and would not have any contact with the cast or crew.
He directed the production using monitors, and those who wanted to see Theis were allowed to do so, IndieWire writes.
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They are chasing you It is Theis’s third directorial project, and it stars French actresses Marina Foïs and Louise Bourgoin.
Theis starred in the film Justine Triet Anatomy of a Fall as the husband of Sandra Hüller’s character, who is on trial for his murder. On Sunday, the film won the Golden Globes for Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film.
Representatives for Theis and Avenue B did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education