PARIS — (AP) — French actor Gérard Depardieu acknowledged Tuesday that he aggressively subjected a woman who accuses him of sexual assault to vulgar and heated language and that he grabbed her hips but denied that his behavior was sexual as he testified for the first time at his landmark trial in Paris.

French actor Gérard Depardieu is standing trial at a Paris courthouse on sexual assault charges. It is seen as a potential watershed for the #MeToo movement in France.

The trial of Gérard Depardieu, who has been accused of sexually assaulting two women on a movie set in 2021, began on Monday after a five-month delay due to the French actor’s poor health.