Kevin Spacey leaves Southwark Crown Court, July 26, 2023. Photo: ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Kevin Spacey captured the world's attention by knowing all the answers. The heroes of the films that led him to fame were cynical, reserved and treacherous. When there was a turn, it was usually assumed that he would be in charge. In recent weeks, the only role he could play on the stage that he did not choose – in the dock at Southwark Crown Court – was himself. His bullish demeanor has constantly left the world wondering if this brilliant actor can refute the many sexual allegations that have plagued him since 2017, culminating in the criminal charges he faced in London. Indeed, the acquittal was handed down on Wednesday.
It's hard to overestimate Spacey's status in the cultural and famous ecosystem before things went wrong for him. The painfully hard hitting thriller The Usual Suspects (1995) made him the hottest character actor in town, and then Sam Mendes' acclaimed directorial debut American Beauty (1999) cemented his fame and magnetism. By winning an Oscar for both, he became the king of Hollywood.
However, it was the theater that launched Spacey and will bring him back. Hailing from a middle-class family in New Jersey with a bullying father—according to both Spacey's brother Randy Fowler and later Spacey—young Kevin found success early, losing himself in roles such as his big break in high school. Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. In 2022, Spacey stated that his father called him a “bastard” and said that was the reason he didn't show up earlier in his life.
Spacey made his reputation on and off Broadway with Ibsen, Molière, Chekov and Eugene O'Neal, and in 1998 struck London in Almeida's revival of Howard Davies's The Iceman Is Coming, playing a salesman who appears after 45- minute break. wait on stage. “He was seized by a wave of anticipation,” recalls Variety critic David Benedict. “Theatreland was in love with him. And then there was the absolute feeling that he was being hailed as the savior of the British theatre.”
King of Hollywood: Kevin Spacey cemented his fame with a role in movie American Beauty. Photo: AP Photo/Lorey Sebastian, ho
The Old Vic, one of London's most prestigious stages and the National Theatre's first arena, has struggled for years. In 2003, Spacey became artistic director, and in the process, he changed his fortune.
Since then, everything in the Old Vic has had a habit of selling out. Even if some productions were criticized and Spacey starred too often, his stardust was too dazzling to matter.
The actor was also able to use goodwill and his celebrity status to secure a game-changing corporate sponsorship from Morgan Stanley. “He was brilliant at using his fame and his ability to swindle money out of people for the benefit of the Old Vic,” confirms Benedict. “Everyone fell for him because he was in a very honorable position.” He continued to work for Vic until 2015.
The last feather was put on Spacey's acting cap when he hit TV in 2013. He landed the role of ruthless Democratic Congressman Frank Underwood in House of Cards, making him the face of Netflix's first revolutionary foray into high-profile drama with a Hollywood director. David Fincher rules. He received a Golden Globe for it, and was rumored to have been paid $1 million per episode near the end.
Kevin Spacey in the 2011 production of Old Vic's Richard III, when he was Artistic Director. Alastair Muir
Perhaps no other actor at that time mastered the world of cinema, theater and television so effectively. He stood on top of them. As an ally of the politically powerful – referring to Bill Clinton as a close friend – he was one of the most powerful and famous celebrities in the entertainment world.
For all these reasons, Spacey's reputational collapse was one of the most dramatic falls we've seen from a major star in the 21st century.
For years, Spacey hid his homosexuality. He introduced himself to the world as a natural. In the 1990s, he brought in script supervisor Diane Dreyer, who was reported to be his co-star, to the awards ceremony. An Esquire article in 1997 said he was gay and he called it McCarthyism. Until October 2017, when the first public accusation of sexual harassment was made against him, he only made headlines once for personal reasons.
It was in April 2004, just before his press conference to launch the new season at the Old Vic. Spacey went to the Lambeth police station to report his phone was stolen by a young man while he was allegedly walking his dog at 4:30 a.m. in a local park. Warned of the obscene publicity that might arise, he then returned to the police to try not to report it. But the damage has been done.
Kevin Spacey outside the Old Vic before the 2004-5 season was announced in April 2004. : PA Photo/Handout
The incident – in a famous cruising area – echoes widespread speculation that Spacey has always been secretly gay.
The first person to accuse Spacey was theater actor Anthony Rapp. Rapp said the alleged attack came after a party Spacey threw at his Manhattan apartment in 1986, when Spacey was 26 and Rapp was only 14.
Rapp's allegations come after he filed a civil lawsuit against Spacey in 2020, which went to court in October 2022 in Manhattan. He claimed that Spacey staggered to his feet after all the other guests left, lifted Rapp off the edge of the bed, and lifted him “like a groom carrying a bride over a doorstep.” He then, according to Rapp, laid him down on the bed and pressed “with all his weight” on Rapp's body.
I knew something was really wrong now, Rapp thought, before twisting and temporarily locking himself in the adjacent bathroom before he managed to get away. He called it the “most traumatic event” of his life.
Kevin Spacey is leaving New York Federal Court in October 2022. Photo: Peter Foley/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
In 2017, Spacey's initial reaction to Rapp's story was twofold. He described himself as “beyond horrified” upon hearing this, but did not deny it. “Honestly, I don’t remember this meeting,” he added in a statement posted on social media. “That would have been over 30 years ago. But if I then behaved as he describes, I must offer him the most sincere apologies for what would have been highly inappropriate behavior while intoxicated, and I regret the feelings that, as he describes, were with him all these years.”
Spacey also chose this very moment to come out as gay in a later part of the same statement, claiming that the story prompted him to “talk about other things in my life.” He was immediately and harshly criticized for his opportunistic timing for doing so, with accusations that he first went public with his orientation as a smokescreen. “Revealing stories should not be used to divert attention from allegations of sexual harassment,” wrote Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of LGBTQ+ human rights group GLAAD, in a tweet.
This wave of publicity had immediate professional consequences for Spacey. The honorary Emmy Award he was supposed to receive was quickly cancelled. On BBC Radio 4, Vicki Featherstone, then Artistic Director of the Royal Court, said there were certainly “troubles” and “stories” about Spacey during his time at the Old Vic.
A few days later, Netflix cut ties with Spacey and began planning his exit from House of Cards, which would only last one season, following Underwood's “mysterious” death they teased about at the end of season five. (In 2022, a judge ordered Spacey to pay the show's production company $31 million for damages incurred while removing it, but the actor unsuccessfully appealed the decision.)
Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood in the fifth season of House of Cards. The former TV presenter claimed that Spacey grabbed her 18-year-old son's genitals in a Nantucket bar in 2016 after offering him drinks. A director named Tony Montana told a similar story on ABC News about how Spacey groped him in 2003.
An investigation was launched against the Old Vic, which initially denied any complaints against him during his tenure. The theater commissioned an outside law firm to collect personal testimony from colleagues, and 20 incidents of “improper behavior” were found. Spacey has not commented on these allegations.
That summer, Spacey starred as 81-year-old billionaire J. Paul Getty in Ridley Scott's kidnapping crime drama All the Money in the World. The planned release was to coincide with Spacey's award campaign, which had to be drastically rethought due to his sudden infamy.
The film's AFI Fest premiere in November was canceled at the last minute, making Spacey the first actor to be so severely canceled that they had to replace an entire performance. The much more age-appropriate Christopher Plummer (then 88) was recast at the very last minute for reshoots and received a Best Supporting Actor nomination that Spacey should have received.
Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey in LA Confidential. Photo: AP Photo/W/B Monarchy-Regency Entertainment, Peter Sorel, HO
In addition, Spacey has just wrapped up his most significant film role in years, as Gore Vidal in the Netflix biopic Gore. Given the explicit homosexual sex in the film, the decision was made to bury him, and six years later he still hasn't seen the light of day. Meanwhile, many of the actors who previously worked with Spacey have broken their silence. Guy Pearce, his L.A. Confidential co-star, described him as “handy” on set (“luckily I was 29 and not 14”).
The shame already seemed all-encompassing, despite Spacey's insistent denials and ongoing legal battles. He disappeared for a year but resurfaced with the infamous Christmas video posted online in December 2018 and then two more in 2019 and 2020. In them, he spoke directly to the camera under the guise of Underwood, expressing goodwill to his loyal fans and threatening – that's the right word – a return after the dust settled. “We're not done yet, no matter what anyone says,” he barked. Everyone just thought he was crazy or turned down any decent PR agency. Treating his newfound fame as a twisted game didn't let him get rid of it.
As the Anthony Rapp case progressed to civil court, Spacey faced a new onslaught of charges in the UK – criminal cases he had just litigated in Southwark Crown Court. The result was 12 counts, including three counts of indecent assault and seven counts of sexual assault, for which he was charged against four different men in the UK between 2001 and 2013.
Spacey pleaded not guilty to all counts and repeatedly challenged his accusers' motives in a four-week trial in which he testified for consecutive days. His comings and goings in front of the waiting press have seen him smile impassively: instead of interviews in black tie on red carpets, he is now the more familiar look in a suit, scurrying down the London pavement before ducking into cars.
In the courtroom, he was described as wiping away tears during the testimony of characteristic witnesses who knew him well at the Old Vic; he also became short-tempered during the cross-examination of prosecutor Christine Agnew and accused her of “making it up”. In response to her claim that he is a “sexual bully” who “likes to make others feel helpless and uncomfortable”, he retorted that he “didn't have a wand of power that I waved in front of people to get them to go to bed.” “. .
The trial reached its peak, perhaps with testimony from Elton John and David Furnish, transmitted via video link from Monaco. The defense called them to confirm what year Spacey attended their annual White Tie and Tiara Ball in Windsor, and clarified that he arrived in a private jet in 2001 wearing a white tie. They do not remember any subsequent visits, which contradicted the assertion of one of Spacey's accusers that he drove Spacey there, either in 2004 or in 2005, when the actor grabbed him by the crotch and almost pushed him off the road.
Calling these witnesses may also have been part of a major defense strategy to get gay A-Listers to rally behind Spacey and potentially impress the jury with a story of victimization. “The celebrity factor can be overwhelming on a subconscious level,” says Mark Borkowski, crisis public relations consultant and writer. “Elton John was a great witness for him.”
Spacey's acquittal in Southwark means that none of the allegations have yet been proven.
Kevin Spacey being presented with an Honorary Order of the British Empire by the then Prince Charles in 2010 Photo: Akira Suemori/WPA Pool/Getty Images
In a $40 million lawsuit brought against him by Rapp, Spacey was found not guilty last October for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional stress. Retracting his earlier apology, which he called the result of bad advice, Spacey successfully countered the case with arguments that Rapp was motivated by professional jealousy. The burden of proof was on Rapp because of the meeting 36 years ago, and there is not enough evidence.
Again, when it came to trial in a London criminal court, the jury was not convinced by the claims made against Spacey.
Spacey said in an interview with a German newspaper last month that there are people “who are ready to hire me as soon as I am admitted.”
In the summer of 2021, he filmed a small dubbed role as a police detective in the Italian drama “The Man Who Painted God, directed by Franco Nero and starring Faye Dunaway. It received a minimal release in Italian cinemas and was released on Russian video order, but it is unlikely to sow the seeds of a powerful return.
Filmed in 2021, the dark comic thriller Peter Five Eight is set to release in the US in August; no UK release date. The British independent film Control, featuring only Spacey's voice, is also due out this year.
Kevin Spacey wins two Oscars , including Best Actor for American Beauty in 2000. Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
“There is work and there is work,” says an anonymous filmmaker with whom I spoke about Spacey’s professional prospects after this trial. “I'm sure people will hire him, but these will most likely be very low profile projects. Even though the lawsuit went nowhere, I don't think the industry will allow him to return in any meaningful form. Especially in the current conditions.”
The verdict doesn't matter, that's Benedict's opinion. “There is an esprit de corps required to work alongside cast and crew ensembles in a film or theatre. In Spacey's case, it was poisoned.”
Janice Ming of Ankler, the film industry's leading newsletter, agrees. “Even if the verdict is in his favor, his chances of making a comeback in mainstream Hollywood are slim at best. The drama and press around any role would be too much for any major studio or streamer, and just not worth the hassle. He would have failed any marketing campaign to focus the project, and I really doubt any of his colleagues would have signed with him. He will remain persona non grata because, regardless of the outcome of the trial, a cloud of misbehavior still hangs over him.”
Spacey’s number of accusers makes the case very different from that of Johnny Depp, in which only one person labeled him as offender – and, accordingly, reduced Spacey's chances of returning. Even without a guilty verdict in a UK criminal case, some believe that Kevin Spacey, the former king of Hollywood, is unlikely to regain his crown.
Additional report by Martin Evans and Alex Diggins
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