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Europe

Depardieu says 'misunderstood' over leaving France

By AFP
Published | Updated
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    Gerard Depardieu at a news conference in Nice, France, on June 6. the veteran French actor insists the controversy over his quitting France was "a big misunderstanding" and that he still loves his country. (AFP)

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    Gerard Depardieu (centre) in Nice, France, on June 6 with Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi. Depardieu, 64, made global headlines late last year when he decided to take up residency to Belgium after the Socialist government sought to impose a 75 percent tax rate on annual incomes over one million euros ($1.3 million). (AFP)

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    Gerard Depardieu wears a Russian military hat as he visits Teplichnoye farm in Ozerny near Saransk on February 23. Depardieu was this year granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin. (AFP/File)

PARIS (AFP) – Veteran French actor Gerard Depardieu has insisted that the controversy over his quitting France was "a big misunderstanding" and that he still loves his country.

"I never left! I refuse to be shut in by borders, that's completely different," Depardieu told the Figaro Magazine in an interview published Friday. "I am a free man. I feel at home everywhere in Europe."

"This whole story is a big misunderstanding," he said, adding: "I love France as much as ever. It's my country."

Depardieu, 64, made global headlines late last year when he decided to take up residency to Belgium after the Socialist government sought to impose a 75 percent tax rate on annual incomes over one million euros ($1.3 million).

He was subsequently granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin. The decision stirred up controversy, as have his friendships with Putin and Chechnya's strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

But in recent months Depardieu has sought to play down the move, granting a series of interviews and returning to Paris this summer to shoot a film in which he plays the creator of the FIFA World Cup, Jules Rimet.

Depardieu still hit out in the interview at President Francois Hollande's Socialist government, saying: "I don't think we can pretend that everything is going well" in France.

"People can really feel the gap between what the politicians are saying and the reality of their daily lives. This rift will eventually burst into the open, maybe during the next elections."

Hailed as one of the greatest actors of his generation, Depardieu starred in films including "Green Card", "Cyrano de Bergerac", "Jean de Florette" and the "Asterix & Obelix" series. He also owns a number of businesses including vineyards.

But in recent years Depardieu has become as famed for his off-screen antics as for his acting talents.

He was fined earlier this year after falling off his scooter while driving drunk in Paris and in 2011 generated global headlines when he tried to urinate in a bottle aboard a plane as it prepared to take off from Paris for Dublin.