Renowned American actor in a recent interview with Piers Morgan, Kevin Spacey, acknowledged his past behavior of being overly physical. Addressing the allegations that halted his career in 2017, the 64-year-old admitted to “pushing the boundaries” inappropriately.
Following a trial in London last year where he was found not guilty of sexual assault charges against four men spanning from 2001 to 2013, and the dismissal of a sexual assault lawsuit in the US in 2022, Spacey is currently involved in a civil trial regarding an allegation from 2008, which he denies.
During the interview on the Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube channel, Spacey elaborated on his understanding of his past actions. He admitted to being “too handsy,” explaining that it involved touching someone in a sexual manner without realizing they did not want it.
When questioned further about the potential criminal nature of such behavior, Spacey stated that he had always tried to be gentle and responsive to others’ cues. However, he did not use the term “grope” to describe his actions, preferring instead to emphasize being considerate and seeking positive responses.
Regarding consent, Spacey noted that communication was crucial, suggesting that if someone did not want his advances, they should express it clearly. He also acknowledged the power dynamics at play, acknowledging that rejection could potentially affect a young actor’s career.
While Spacey expressed readiness to take accountability for his past actions, labeling them as “bad, bad, bad behavior,” he also asserted that numerous accusations against him were false. Referring to recent allegations in the Channel 4 documentary Spacey Unmasked by actors Ruari Cannon and Danny De Lillo, Spacey vehemently denied their claims, calling them “ridiculous” and “completely offensive.”
Despite the controversies, some Hollywood figures, including Sharon Stone, Stephen Fry, and Liam Neeson, have voiced support for Spacey’s return to acting. However, Spacey’s career has seen significant setbacks, including his dismissal from House of Cards and the reshooting of scenes in All the Money in the World following the initial allegations against him.
American actor Kevin Spacey experienced an emotional moment on his 64th birthday when a U.K. jury found him not guilty of nine charges, including sexual assault, indecent assault, and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity. The trial took place over four and a half weeks at Southwark Crown Court in London.
The jury heard from four men who had made complaints against Spacey. One of them, who had frequent interactions with the actor during his time as creative director of the Old Vic theatre in the early 2000s, claimed that Spacey repeatedly grabbed him by the crotch, even causing a near-crash incident on a motorway. Spacey defended himself, stating that the relationships were consensual, but denied the near-crash incident, providing evidence to support his claim.
The second complaint was related to a charity event in 2005, where a man accused Spacey of making sexually aggressive comments before pinning him against a wall and grabbing his crotch. Spacey denied ever meeting the man at the event.
The most serious charge involved an allegation from 2008, in which a complainant claimed to have woken up in Spacey’s London apartment to find him performing oral sex. Spacey asserted that the encounter was consensual and presented telephone records contradicting the man’s account.
The fourth complaint was related to a party at Spacey’s rented house in Gloucestershire, where he allegedly made sexual advances towards another man. Spacey described the encounter as a drunken “clumsy pass” and attempted to apologize.
The jury ultimately dismissed each of the charges brought against Spacey. Originally facing 12 counts, the number was reduced to nine due to a legal technicality.
This verdict marks another legal victory for Spacey, who previously won a $40 million civil lawsuit brought against him by actor Anthony Rapp in October. Rapp had accused Spacey of sexual battery, but a New York jury dismissed the claim.
The trial, which began at the end of June, saw Spacey denying all accusations and emotionally testifying in the witness box at Southwark Crown Court.
The 64-year-old Oscar winner was visibly emotional as he heard the verdict, shedding tears of relief.
During the trial, the prosecution referred to Spacey as a “sexual bully,” but the jury ultimately found him not guilty of the alleged offences that took place between 2001 and 2013.
As the jurors left the court, Spacey nodded at them while wiping tears from his face with a tissue. On his birthday, he expressed gratitude and let out a sigh of relief, having endured the intense legal proceedings.
During his testimony, Spacey described how his life was shattered when other allegations surfaced against him in the US back in 2017.
“There was a rush to judgment and before the first question was asked or answered I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days,” he told jurors.
Spacey, who was artistic director at The Old Vic theatre in London between 2004 and 2015, was accused of drugging and performing a sex act on a former aspiring actor while he slept, and of several assaults on another man – a driver who claimed the actor grabbed his crotch so hard on one occasion that he “almost come off the road”.
Another man claimed the Hollywood actor subjected him to a “barrage” of “vile” sexual abuse before grabbing his crotch “like a cobra” at a West End event, while the fourth said the Hollywood star kissed his neck and told him to “be cool”, again before grabbing his crotch.
Spacey, best known for films including American Beauty and The Usual Suspects and for political drama series House Of Cards, vehemently denied all the allegations.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court in London has now cleared him of all the charges.
Denying the separate allegations by each of the men, Spacey told the court:
He had a “somewhat intimate” relationship with another complainant, but denied assaulting him in a “violent, aggressive, painful way” – and said it felt like he had been stabbed in the back when he learned of the claims;
That allegations by a man he met in a West End theatre in the mid-2000s were “madness” and the incident described “never happened”; That he may have “made a pass” at another complainant but was “happy that he testified that the moment he told me he was not interested, I stopped”.
His defence team had labelled the prosecution’s case against him as “weak” – accusing some of the complainants of being after money.
The actor told the court he was a “flirt” and had been “open” about times he had been “promiscuous”, adding: “It doesn’t make me a bad person.”
He later told jurors he found it “harder to trust people because of who I was”, due to his fame and status.
Kevin Spacey broke down in tears in court on Thursday as he denied sexually abusing four men in their 20s and 30s between 2001 and 2013.
The Hollywood star, 63, told Southwark crown court that his “world exploded” when sexual abuse allegations against him first emerged in 2017, saying: “I lost everything.”
He said his acting work dried up and his fortune dwindled in the face of mounting legal bills. He said there was a “rush to judgment” and that he lost his job, reputation and everything in a matter of days.
Spacey, a two-time Oscar winner, appeared in the witness box as he gave evidence in his month-long trial. He faces 12 charges, which include seven of sexual assault, three of indecent assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
He denies all the charges and claims that any sexual contact he had with the complainants was consensual.
Wearing a charcoal grey suit and a blue tie, he recounted his career and how he had gone to acting school with Val Kilmer. He shared showbiz anecdotes including buying Dame Judi Dench a ping-pong table and purchasing “the most expensive Mini Cooper ever” at a charity auction hosted by Elton John.
But he became emotional as he described feeling “crushed” when he found out that a man he had been “intimate” with had accused him of assaulting him in the early 2000s.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has claimed that on one occasion he was driving Spacey to a party hosted by Elton John when Spacey grabbed his penis with such force that he almost crashed.
Spacey denied assaulting the man on the way to the singer’s white tie and tiara ball, saying: “No, I was not on a suicide mission in any of those years.”
He said he was a “flirt” and a “big flirt” and that he had a sexual but not penetrative relationship with the man. He said it did not happen in a “violent, aggressive, painful way” but was “gentle and touching and in my mind romantic”.
He said he was “stabbed in the back” by the man who made the allegations 20 years later.
Spacey also addressed an October 2017 BuzzFeed article that featured an allegation by the American actor Anthony Rapp, who accused Spacey of an unwanted sexual advance. The allegation was found not proven in a civil court in October last year.
Spacey told the packed courtroom: “My world exploded.” He said there were further rumours in the wake of the article and that his sponsorship deals and contracts were “abandoned”.
He also addressed the public statement he made in the wake of the allegation in which he came out as gay. He said members of the LGBTQ+ community were upset because he came out while he was responding to an accusation. He said he now understood why it was read that way but he had not put those two things together.
Spacey denied claims made by three other men who accused him of sexually assaulting them in different occasions and locations.
One man claimed that Spacey met him at a West End theatre in the mid-2000s and grabbed his crotch “like a cobra” after making a “barrage of vile comments”.
Spacey denied the attack, saying: “I never said any of the things that he claims I said to him, and wouldn’t, and never have to anyone in my life.”
Another man claimed that Spacey drugged him before performing a sex act on him while he was asleep in 2008.
Spacey said they had shared “an intimate” moment before the man became “suddenly awkward and fumbling”. He said: “I believe I performed oral sex on him. I remember the end of the evening and that was what stuck in my mind because we had a consensual and, I believe, a very nice and lovely evening.”
The fourth man claimed that Spacey sexually grabbed him after meeting him at a pub near Oxford in the early 2010s.
Spacey said he had “primarily” no issue with the man’s testimony. He said: “I made a pass and I’m only happy that he testified that the moment he told me he was not interested, I stopped.”
The actor Kevin Spacey testified in his own defence during his sexual assault trial, telling the jury that touching his accuser was “in my mind romantic.”
Appearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court, the two-time Oscar-winning actor said he had developed a “flirtatious” relationship with an accuser.
He told the jury he and the complainant had been “somewhat intimate”, but denied assaulting him.
The 63-year-old faces 12 sexual offence charges, all of which he denies.
The court heard the complainant alleges the incident happened as he drove Spacey to a showbiz party in the early 2000s.
When asked if he caused the accuser to “come off the road” when he grabbed the man, the actor replied: “That never happened. I was not on a suicide mission on any of those years.”
Giving evidence, Mr Spacey told the court he had developed a “flirtatious” relationship over time with the accuser, and that he touched the man in “romantic” and “intimate” ways.
“Yeah, I am a big flirt,” he told the court.
Speaking about touching the man, he continued: “It did not happen in a violent, aggressive, painful way.
“It was gentle… and it was, in my mind, romantic.”
Mr Spacey said the complainant said things like “this is new for me”.
He explained the touching did not progress because the alleged victim “made it clear that he did not want to go any further”.
Asked by his barrister Patrick Gibbs KC for his reaction to the allegations by the complainant, he said: “I was crushed. I never thought the (name of man) I knew over 20 years later would stab me in the back.”
‘Never happened’
Addressing accusations by another complainant who alleged Mr Spacey had grabbed his crotch “like a cobra” after using a “vile comment”, the actor said he had never done that to anyone in his life.
Mr Spacey told the jury that allegations made by the man – that he allegedly met at a theatre in the mid-2000s – were “madness” because “it never happened”.
“I never said any of the things that he claims I said to him and wouldn’t and never have to anyone in my life,” he told the court.
Speaking of allegations from another complainant, Mr Spacey said he did not recognise the accuser by name or appearance and his records showed he was not in the UK in August 2008, when the man claims the incident took place.
Mr Spacey said watching a video of the complainant who mentioned he was on a bus had sparked a memory of a sexual encounter he had with someone in his flat.
The actor said that when he returned from the bathroom “it was like everything had changed”, adding: “The person I had had this intimate moment with was suddenly awkward and fumbling.”
Asked whether he met the individual again, Mr Spacey said he did not have a strong memory of it “but my instinct tells me that we may have seen each other again”.
“I believe I performed [a sex act] on him,” Mr Spacey told the court.
After breaking for lunch, the court heard Mr Spacey’s defence against accusations from another complainant who claims he came into contact with the actor while he was working in a pub.
Mr Spacey said on the evening in question everyone was drinking and “pretty much everyone” smoked cannabis.
The actor said he remembered some of the details after seeing the complainant’s interview video, but did not have a clear memory about conversations which took place.
Discussing the alleged incident, Mr Spacey said he “made a pass and I am only happy that he testified that the moment he told me he wasn’t interested, I stopped”.
He told the court he did not remember going back to the pub where the complainant worked the next day, but accepted he did based on witness testimony and said it was probably to apologise.
‘I lost everything’
Asked what happened when the first accusations were made against him, Mr Spacey said: “My world exploded.
“I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days.”
Speaking about his decision to come out as gay, Mr Spacey said he had been pressured to do so, and members of the LGBT community were “upset” that he came out while responding to an allegation.
“It wasn’t that this story suddenly made me want to come out… I thought in the face of this terrible accusation [I could do something positive].”
The prosecution finished their evidence against the Hollywood star on Wednesday after the jury heard accounts from his four alleged victims.
During their evidence, they variously described him as a “vile sexual predator”, “slippery” and “atrocious, despicable, disgusting”.
Jurors heard of alleged “aggressive” crotch grabs against three men, while a fourth complainant accused Mr Spacey of having drugged him and performing a sex act on him while he was asleep.
On Wednesday, prosecutor Shauna Ritchie said Mr Spacey told police he was “baffled” by the claims by one man and did not recognise the others.
The actor said he may have made a “clumsy pass” at his final alleged victim but denied deliberately attacking him.
Mr Spacey is accused of sex offences against four men between 2001 and 2013.
He pleaded not guilty in January to three counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.
He also denies four further charges of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
All four accusers are entitled to lifelong anonymity under the law.
The Hollywood star won an Oscar for Best Actor in 2000 for American Beauty as well as Emmy nominations for his role in House of Cards.
Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spaceyis to be charged with a further seven sexual offences against one man, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said.
They include three counts of indecent assault, three of sexual assault and one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.
The offences are alleged to have taken place between 2001 and 2004.
The CPS said these new charges follow a review of evidence gathered by London’s Metropolitan Police.
In July, the 63-year-old appeared in court at the Old Bailey to deny five allegations relating to three men, who are now in their 30s and 40s. That trial is due to begin in June next year.
Last month, a US court dismissed a civil sexual assault lawsuit against Spacey. The case was brought by Anthony Rapp who said the actor touched him inappropriately at a party in 1986 when he was 14.
Kevin Spacey (centre) took the stand in his own defence in the third week of his trial. Kevin Spacey (centre) took the stand in his own defence in the third week of his trial (Photo credit: Getty Images)
A New York court has dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit against the actor Kevin Spacey.
The case was brought by Anthony Rapp, who says the actor inappropriately touched him at a party in 1986 when he was aged 14.
Mr Rapp, now 50 and also an actor, filed the legal action in September 2020 and had been seeking around $40m (£36m) in damages.
Mr Spacey, an Oscar winner, has denied the accusations against him.
He is separately facing five charges in the UK of sexual assault, to which he has pleaded not guilty. That trial is due to begin in June 2023.
On Thursday, following a three-week civil trial in a Manhattan federal court, a jury found that Mr Rapp had not proved his claim that Mr Spacey had made an unwanted sexual advance.
Deliberations lasted for more than an hour and, after the verdict was read out by the judge, Mr Spacey reportedly hugged his lawyers before leaving the courtroom.
Mr Rapp says that Mr Spacey was around 26 or 27 years old when he met him at a party at his Manhattan apartment.
In a Buzzfeed article from October 2017, Mr Rapp said that Mr Spacey had picked him up, placed him on a bed and lay down partially on top of him. “I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually,” he wrote.
Taking the stand in his own defence in the third week of his trial, Mr Spacey said he was shocked when Mr Rapp went public with his allegations five years ago.
“I didn’t know how this could possibly be true,” the 63-year-old said, adding he would not have been sexually interested in Mr Rapp as he was underage.
Mr Rapp’s lawyer Richard Steigman argued there were gaps in Mr Spacey’s memory and changes in his recollection.
Mr Spacey’s lawyer Jennifer Keller countered that Mr Rapp’s story was a fabrication, and she said he was “getting more attention in this trial than he has in his entire acting life”.
Career derailed
Multiple allegations of sexual misconduct derailed the Hollywood star’s stage career. Netflix dropped him from its political drama series House of Cards and Christopher Plummer replaced him in the role of J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World.
In August, a judge ruled that Mr Spacey must pay $31m to the producers of House of Cards for the costs they incurred after firing him from the show.
Mr Spacey won Oscars for his performances in American Beauty and The Usual Suspects.
In July, he entered a not guilty plea in London to criminal charges of sexually assaulting three men over a decade ago.
During the New York trial he was asked about a suggestion by Mr Rapp that he was a “fraud” for not coming out as gay sooner. Mr Spacey said he had always been private about his personal life, including his childhood, because his father had held racist and homophobic views.
Anthony Rapp, who is 14 years old, accuses Mr. Spacey of touching him indecently at a party in 1986. Anthony is suing Mr. Spacey in New York.
Mr Spacey, 63, is separately facing five charges of sexual assault in the UK.
The House of Cards actor has denied the allegations against him.
Both Mr Rapp, now 51 and also an actor, and Mr Spacey are expected to be in the Manhattan federal courthouse when the trial opens with jury selection on Thursday.
Mr Rapp says that Mr Spacey was around 26 or 27 years old when he met him at a party at his Manhattan apartment.
In a Buzzfeed article from October 2017, Mr Rapp said that Mr Spacey had picked him up, placed him on a bed, and lay down partially on top of him.
“I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually,” Mr Rapp said.
His lawsuit says the alleged encounter lasted no more than two minutes and “there was no kissing, no undressing, no reaching under clothes, and no sexualized statements or innuendo”.
Mr Rapp is reportedly seeking $40m (£35m) in damages.
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Anthony Rapp currently stars in Star Trek: Discovery
The judge assigned to the case, Lewis A Kaplan, previously dismissed a charge of sexual assault, ruling the statute of limitations had expired.
One day after the Buzzfeed article was posted five years ago, Mr Spacey took to social media to say he had no memory of what Mr Rapp described.
“If I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior,” he wrote.
“And I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”
In a video deposition, he filmed with lawyers in January, Mr Spacey denied that the incident ever took place, according to the news website Law & Crime.
Mr Rapp’s account “couldn’t have been true”, he said, because “I am not interested in boys and I do not touch people inappropriately”.
Mr Rapp stars in Star Trek: Discovery on Paramount+ and was previously in the Broadway musical Rent.
Separate sex assault charges – alleging that Mr Spacey groped an 18-year-old at a restaurant in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 2016 – collapsed in 2019 after the actor’s lawyers argued the accuser had manipulated text messages on his phone.
In August, a judge ruled that Spacey must pay $31m to the producers of House of Cards for the costs they incurred after firing him from the show.
In July, he entered a not guilty plea in London to criminal charges of sexually assaulting three men over a decade ago. That trial is due to begin in June 2023.
