I'm quitting films, says Depardieu

Famed French actor Gerard Depardieu has announced that he’s ending his film career – and swears he wasn’t drunk when he said it.

“I’m in the process of stopping filming,” the Oscar-nominated actor was quoted as saying in weekly Le Parisien Dimanche.

“I’m a guy who’s leaving! A guy who’s not drunk. For once.”

Depardieu, one of France’s most prolific actors, was speaking on the set of an upcoming French film and is scheduled to appear in a new instalment of the “Asterix” series next year, the newspaper said.

But he insisted his career will soon be over.

“I have nothing to lose,” the 56-year-old star said. “I have done 170 films. I have nothing left to prove. I am not going to hang on like a jerk.”

Depardieu was a leading French actor of the 1980s and 1990s with such hits as Green Card, Jean de Florette and Cyrano de Bergerac, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.