Five years ago the world of Kevin Spacey (South Orange, New Jersey, 63 years old) took a 180 degree turn when the first allegations of sexual harassment against the actor appeared. A complaint that not only ended his role in the hit series he was starring in at the time, but also his entire career. Five years in which he has stayed away from the spotlight. Until now, when he has given his first interview to a media outlet. And, according to what he has told the german newspaper ZEIT magazine, People are ready to offer him roles in new television projects if he is acquitted of sexual abuse allegations in London, for which he will face an upcoming trial scheduled to start on June 28 and last four weeks. The two-time Oscar winner was charged a year ago with four counts of sexual harassment in the British capital, related to incidents that occurred between 2005 and 2013.
“It is a time when many do not want to support me because they are afraid of being cancelled,” the interpreter told the journalist, whom he met at various times for the report, both at his home in Baltimore (Maryland) —where they are not neither of his two Oscars in sight -, like in a jazz bar or in a public event of the few that Spacey agrees to go to. “But I know there are a lot of people who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London. As soon as that happens, they are ready to move forward. The media have done everything possible to turn me into a monster, but I have received nothing but love from the people, ”he adds. The support of his followers, who keep asking for photos and complimenting him on his work, gives him hope. “These encounters give me resilience,” says Spacey. “I’m still trying to process it. I’m not ready to talk about it yet, ”he also assures. But he remains positive: “Everything happens for a reason. And even if the reason isn’t clear at first or things don’t work out right away, it will all make sense in the end.” Of course, as he admits to the journalist, he doubts that he can completely restore his reputation.
In the near future, the off movie and television star has no big projects in sight. He has voiced thriller Control. Gene Fallaize, the director of this thriller, has also spoken to the German publication: “What happens if he is found guilty?”, the journalist asks him about his film. “The plain truth is that it would still sell. He has a ridiculously supportive fan base. They want to see Kevin perform. Nobody stops listening to Michael Jackson”, answers Fallaize. Beyond this small project, the actor currently writes scripts for theater, shorts, and movies. But there is one thing he is not going to write about, his experience being accused of sexual crimes: “I have no interest in fighting against something that is not worth fighting for.” In his first words to a journalist, with a photo session included, the actor acknowledges that Control It is not the type of project that he would have accepted before falling from grace: “Now, I often feel that I am back at the beginning of my career, when nobody wanted me… Just because I was on the bench for a while, I am not going to stop working. I don’t want to rust. I’m ready.”
In the coming days, Spacey faces four sexual harassment offenses in London to which he pleaded not guilty after being charged by the UK prosecutor in May 2022. In total, 12 charges have been made against the actor in the United Kingdom. The alleged victims would be three men. “Likewise, he has also been accused of forcing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without his consent. All the charges are the result of the final review of the evidence collected by the Metropolitan Police during its investigation, ”explained Rosemary Ainslie, head of Scotland Yard’s Special Crimes Division, upon learning of his indictment. If Spacey is finally found guilty, the penalties would range from six months in prison or a fine to life in prison.
The first accusation of sexual abuse against the interpreter of usual suspects (1995) was in October 2017. This year, actor Anthony Rapp accused him of raping him when he was 14 years old, in 1986. At that time, Spacey was 26 years old. At the end of a party, the actor from Star Trek: Discovery to the news website Buzzfeed News, Spacey jumped on his bed and attempted to harass him. Was the Weinstein case, and the movement that MeToo spawned, which encouraged Rapp to take the step of speaking out publicly. Shortly after that complaint, the actor announced with a statement on Twitter that he had chosen to “live as a gay man,” a step he took “encouraged” by Rapp’s accusation.
From that first accusation, up to 30 more men assured that they had been victims of the actor’s sexual abuse. At the moment, there is no conviction against him, beyond having ruined his career just at the moment of his maximum splendor thanks to his leading role in house of cards, a series from which he was fired for his inappropriate sexual conduct, which involved young members of the team, and shortly after forced to pay 30 million euros to the producers. According to an account in the interview, one of the few friends he has left, Evan Lowenstein, in 48 hours he lost everything: reputation, job, money and friends. “He has been playing other people for so long, that now he has been discovering who Kevin Spacey really is,” says who is also his manager, with whom in his hardest years he went on a trip for three months to travel the world. “I think I tried really hard not to be a jerk. But I think that, to a certain extent, he was an imbecile, ”Spacey assures the German medium.
In October 2022, Kevin Spacey was acquitted of Anthony Rapp’s indictment by a jury in New York. “We are grateful that the jury saw the truth,” said Jennifer L. Keller, one of his lawyers, at the time. The strategy of his legal team focused on dismantling the version reported by Rapp 31 years after the events, thanks to a rule that allows victims of child abuse to report until they are 55 years old. During two weeks of the process, they tried to highlight the contradictions in which the musical actor incurred. Among these contradictions, the date of the alleged attack and some details, such as that a friend of his was present in the room. In addition, two other charges of sexual abuse against Spacey in the United States, in Los Angeles and Nantucket (Massachusetts, USA), have been withdrawn after the death of one of the victims and the choice of the other not to testify. Now ahead of him is his trial in London.
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