Depardieu bowing out of film career

PARIS - Actor Gerard Depardieu is ending his film career, a newspaper quoted the popular Frenchman as saying.

"I have nothing to lose. I have made 170 films. I have nothing left to prove. I am not going to hang on like an idiot," Depardieu, one of France's best known actors at home and abroad, was quoted as saying by Le Parisien Dimanche newspaper.

"I'm in the process of stopping filming," said the portly star of films such as "Cyrano de Bergerac", "Green Card" and "Jean de Florette".

Depardieu, 56, made the comments on the set of the upcoming French film "Michou d'Auber". He would also star in an Asterix film to be made next year, the paper said.

- REUTERS