Gerard Depardieu is the most respected and prolific actor in France. His films have profoundly touched an entire nation for 35 years. And over here, he’s that fat drunk French bloke with the big nose.

Either way, Gerard Depardieu revealed this weekend that he’s decided to quit acting for good. And he almost completely means it, probably.

Gerard Depardieu (DVDs) told the Le Parisien newspaper that he’s decided to quit
film-making. According to reports, he told the cast and crew of Michou
d’Auber, his latest film, that it was to be his last:

"I have nothing to lose. I have been in 170 films, I have nothing left
to prove. I’m not going to hang on like an imbecile. I’m
stopping shooting. I’m leaving it behind and I’m not even drunk, for
once."

Depardieu,
best known for his roles in Cyrano de Bergerac, Green Card and Jean de
Florette, is thought to want to spend more time looking after his
restaurants and vineyards around the world, as well as slowing down
after concerns about his health. But his agent isn’t having of this
quitting talk. Depardieu has kept telling him that he’s going to stop acting
for the last ten years, although he did concede:

"He is fed up of cinema. It doesn’t amuse him anymore. He wants to do deals, he wants to do other things than act."

The last time Depardieu was on British screens was during a drunken interview with Jonathan Ross, where Depardieu labelled most of his recent films as shit, and described the process of cooking a hedgehog: 

"First, you shove a pump up its arse and blow it up to remove the spikes."

Read more:

"I’ve made my final film," says Gerard Depardieu – Telegraph

[story by Stuart Heritage]