On Thursday, May 16, Kevin Spacey gave his first television interview since 2017, when accusations of sexual violence against him made him persona non grata in Hollywood. The actor, a two-time Oscar winner, spoke to the American channel NewsNation and particularly expressed his desire to return to the sets.
“I just want to go back to work,” he told American journalist Chris Cuomo. “I’d rather play you in a movie than sit here answering your questions.”
Kevin Spacey, once one of Hollywood’s most prominent actors, “lost everything” in 2017 amid the rise of the #MeToo movement. Actor Anthony Rapp accused him of sexually assaulting him in 1986, when he was 14 years old and was the protagonist ofAmerican Beauty He was 26 years old. The accusations against him multiplied quickly, both in the United States and in London, where Kevin Spacey ran the Old Vic theater for eleven years.
The actor was found not guilty of sexual assault at Anthony Rapp’s trial in 2022. The following year, he was again found not guilty of sexually assaulting four men at his trial in London.
New accusations
His speech against Chris Cuomo comes just when the British channel Channel 4 has just aired it Spacey unmaskeda documentary in which ten men claim to have suffered sexual abuse by the actor.
“I’m not going to sit idly by while a documentary from a dying channel desperate to improve its ratings attacks me,” he tweeted a few days before the broadcast.
“I assume my responsibilities,” he declared to Chris Cuomo. “But I refuse to accept responsibility for what I didn’t do, for things that were exaggerated or grossly altered.”
“I’m trying to show that I listened. I learned. I got the message,” he continued, as reported by Deadline. “I really feel like whatever mistakes I’ve made in my life, I’ve paid the price for them.” He believes the #MeToo movement has “leaned too much toward injustice,” and says he has not committed anything illegal.
He also explains that people supported him “privately”, but were “afraid to defend him (publicly)”: “I find it unfortunate that we live in a society where people are afraid to say this publicly. What they believe and what they feel” . because they are afraid of being ‘canceled’ too.”
New supports
However, recently some have come forward. This week, following the documentary Spacey unmaskedSharon Stone, Liam Neeson and F. Murray Abraham spoke to the Telegraph to call for the fallen actor’s rehabilitation.
“This man has publicly accepted his share of responsibility for certain behaviors, unlike so many others,” declared the latter in particular.
“I can’t wait to see Kevin work again. He is a genius,” said Sharon Stone, before attacking her accusers, whom she presents as aspiring actors: “It’s terrible that they make him pay for the fact that they couldn’t. “to accept having used it (…) all because they didn’t get what they wanted.”
“It means a lot to me,” says Kevin Spacey. It is also very rewarding. “They are people I talked to and who helped me a lot.”
Source: BFM TV
