Kevin Spacey slams Hollywood for being unforgiving

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Kevin Spacey is speaking out on cancel culture and redemption in a new interview with Lex Fridman.

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The two-time Oscar winner, who was acquitted of sex assault charges in London last year, has been slapped with new allegations of inappropriate behaviour from men who appeared in a documentary that aired on British television last month.

In response, the American Beauty star posted a 20-minute rebuttal, titled “Kevin Spacey: Right of Reply,” which streamed on X.

In an online interview with journalist Dan Wootton, Spacey went on to say he has never done anything illegal and admitted that he has struggled to get back to work after being acquitted last year of criminal charges in a London court.

“I can’t go through this again, allowing myself to be baselessly attacked without defending myself,” he said in the interview that was aired on Wootton’s YouTube channel.

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In his chat with Fridman, which was released onto YouTube this week, Spacey, 64, said that for all of Hollywood’s talk about “redemption,” it is actually an unforgiving town.

“I live in an industry in which there is a tremendous amount of conversation about redemption, from a lot of people who are very serious people in very serious positions who believe in it,” Spacey told Fridman (per The Hollywood Reporter). “That guy who finally got out of prison who was wrongly accused … We see so many people saying, ‘Let’s find a path for that person. Let’s help that person rejoin society.’

“But there is an odd situation if you are in the entertainment industry, you are not offered that kind of a path,” he said. ”And I hope that the fear that people are experiencing will eventually subside and common sense will get back to the table.”

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Spacey said that the unwillingness to hire him again, even though he was exonerated last year, stems from the time we’re living in.

“I don’t think it’s about the industry. I think it’s about our time,” Spacey said on the podcast. “I think it’s the time we are in. And people are very afraid. They are literally afraid that they’re going to get cancelled if they stand up for someone who has been. We’ve seen this many times in history, this is not the first time it’s happened.”

But he acknowledged while in conversation with Fridman that he wasn’t proud of some of his past interactions with other men.

“There are a number of things that I’ve been accused of that simply did not happen, and I can’t say, and I don’t think it would be right for me to say, ‘Well, everything I’ve been accused of is true,’” Spacey explained. “Because we’ve now proven that it isn’t, and it wasn’t. But I am perfectly willing to accept that I had behaviours that were wrong, that I shouldn’t have done and that I am regretful for.”

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Spacey’s alleged misdeeds and claims of sexual assault first arose in the wake of the #MeToo movement in 2017 when he was accused by actor Anthony Rapp of sexually assaulting him when he was 14 years old in the early 1980s.

Additional complainants surfaced, all of whom accused the actor of sexual assault. 

Three men accused Spacey of aggressively grabbing their crotches, describing him as “vile” and a “slippery, snaky” predator. A fourth, an aspiring actor, said he awoke to the actor performing oral sex on him after falling asleep or passing out in Spacey’s London apartment where he had gone for career advice and a beer.

Through it all, Spacey maintained his innocence, saying he was a “casual flirt” but not guilty of abuse.

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After the allegations, Spacey’s career ground to a halt. He was dropped from All the Money in the World, with actor Christopher Plummer filming Spacey’s already completed scenes, and dumped by Netflix from his role on House of Cards.

“It is bizarre they decided to publicly cut ties with me on allegations alone, allegations that have now been proven false,” Spacey said last December in an interview with Tucker Carlson. “Because I don’t think there’s any question. Netflix exists because of me. I put them on the map and they tried to put me in the ground.”

In recent months, several high-profile celebrities have endorsed Spacey’s return to acting, including Sharon Stone and Liam Neeson.

“I can’t wait to see Kevin back at work. He is a genius. He is so elegant and fun, generous to a fault and knows more about our craft than most of us ever will,” Stone told The Telegraph last month.

Neeson called Spacey a “good man and a man of character.”

“He’s sensitive, articulate and non-judgmental, with a terrific sense of humour. He is also one of our finest artists in the theatre and on camera. Personally speaking, our industry needs him and misses him greatly,” he said.

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