The trial of Gérard Depardieu on sexual assault charges has opened in Paris in the absence of the French actor, who has declared himself to be ill.

His lawyer Jérémie Assous said earlier that the 75-year-old was “extremely affected” by ill health and that he had asked for the proceedings to be delayed until he could attend in person.

“Unfortunately, his doctors have forbidden him from appearing here today,” Assous said on arrival for the trial. He said would ask the court for a six-month suspension of the trial, which comes after numerous other complaints and with a possible second court case already lying in wait. However, the proceedings opened in Depardieu’s absence.

Depardieu is being tried on charges of sexually assaulting two women while shooting the 2021 film Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters).

Depardieu, an icon of French cinema who has appeared in more than 200 films, has denied accusations that he aggressively groped and made explicit sexual remarks to the women – a set designer and an assistant director. In an open letter published last year, he said: “Never, but never, have I abused a woman.”

The actor is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema’s version of the #MeToo movement, triggered in 2017 by allegations against the US producer Harvey Weinstein.

The names of the two women at the centre of Monday’s trial have not been made public. The set designer reported in February that she was subjected to sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults while filming Les Volets Verts, directed by Jean Becker, in a private house in Paris.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, told Agence France-Presse: “I expect the justice system to be the same for everybody and for Monsieur Depardieu not to receive special treatment just because he’s an artist.”

Assous previously said Depardieu’s defence would offer “witnesses and evidence that will show he has simply been targeted by false accusations”. He accused the plaintiff of attempting to “make money” by claiming €30,000 (£25,000) in compensation.

The plaintiff told the French investigative website Mediapart that during the shoot Depardieu started loudly calling for a cooling fan because he “couldn’t even get it up” in the heat.

She claimed the actor went on to boast that he could “give women an orgasm without touching them”. The plaintiff alleged that an hour later she was “brutally grabbed” by Depardieu as she was walking off the set. The actor pinned her by “closing his legs” around her before groping her waist and her stomach and continuing up to her breasts, she said.

Depardieu made “obscene remarks” during the incident, she said, including: “Come and touch my big parasol. I’ll stick it in your pussy.” She described the actor’s bodyguards dragging him away as he shouted: “We’ll see each other again, my dear.”

Durrieu-Diebolt said: “My client expects that the justice system will find Gérard Depardieu to be a serial sexual assaulter.”

The second plaintiff in the case, an assistant director on the same film, also alleges sexual violence.

Anouk Grinberg, an actor who appeared in Les Volets Verts, told AFP that Depardieu used “salacious words … from morning till night”.

“When producers hired Depardieu to work on a film, they knew they were hiring an assaulter,” she said. Grinberg said that in her experience Depardieu had “always used sexual, smutty language”, but that his behaviour had become “much, much worse, with permission from his profession, that pays him for it and covers up his offences”.

About 20 women have accused Depardieu of various sexual offences. The actor Charlotte Arnould was the first to file a criminal complaint. A judge has yet to rule on a request from prosecutors in August for Depardieu to stand trial for raping and sexually assaulting her.

An investigation is under way in Paris after a former production assistant accused Depardieu of a sexual assault in 2014. The actor Hélène Darras filed a sexual assault complaint that fell foul of the statute of limitations. The Spanish writer and journalist Ruth Baza has accused Depardieu of raping her in 1995.

In December last year the French president, Emmanuel Macron, shocked feminists by complaining of a “manhunt” targeting Depardieu, whom he called a “towering actor” who “makes France proud”.

Macron’s remarks followed the broadcast by an investigative TV show of a recording of Depardieu making repeated misogynistic and insulting remarks about women.

Depardieu is the biggest star to face accusations in French cinema’s #MeToo movement. The directors Jacques Doillon and Benoît Jacquot are among other prominent figures accused of sexual violence. Doillon and Jacquot have denied the allegations.