Kevin Spacey has responded to fresh allegations of inappropriate behaviour in the past, ahead of a new documentary due to be released next week. In an interview with former GB News presenter Dan Wootton, he commented on claims made in an upcoming Channel 4 documentary. While accepting he may at times have behaved inappropriately in the past, he denied his behaviour was illegal. Mr Spacey has been cleared of sexual assault in trials in the US and UK.
“I take full responsibility for my past behaviour and my actions. But I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologise to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me,” Mr Spacey told Mr Wootton. “I’ve never told someone that if they give me sexual favours, then I will help them out with their career, ever,” he said.
Spacey Unmasked, a Channel 4 documentary, is due to be released next week. Actors Ruari Cannon and Danny De Lillo are among those featured in the documentary. Both have given interviews published today alleging inappropriate behaviour by Mr Spacey. Mr Cannon alleges that in 2013, Mr Spacey touched him inappropriately in public at a press night for an Old Vic theatre production.
Mr Spacey said the allegation was “ridiculous and it never happened”. Mr De Lillo alleges the actor thrust his groin towards his face while he was seated at a production at the same theatre. Mr Spacey said he found the accusation “completely offensive”. A number of other allegations from the documentary were put to Mr Spacey, who denied accusations of illegal behaviour in all cases.
In a statement released on Friday night, lawyers acting for Mr Spacey said there was no public interest in the public being misinformed with the publication of “false and unverified allegations” which were “largely historic, dating as far back as almost 50 years ago”. Mr Spacey, the lawyers said, had “not been provided with anything more than very general, anonymised information” about the claims and had been left “with little choice but to make his own public statement” in the form of his interview with Mr Wootton.
Mr Spacey said accusations against him by Anthony Rapp, who accused him of sexual assault, did not happen. If they did, Mr Spacey said “when I was in my twenties, it would have been simply embarrassing but not criminal”. Last year, in a separate trial in London, Mr Spacey was cleared of nine sexual offence charges relating to four men between 2001 and 2013. The Hollywood star won best actor Oscar in 2000 for American Beauty, and best supporting actor in 1995 for The Usual Suspects.
He was also the artistic director at the Old Vic Theatre in London between 2004 and 2015. In a statement, the Old Vic said it had conducted an investigation in 2017 into alleged inappropriate conduct by Kevin Spacey at the theatre between 2005 and 2013. “There were no findings of fact regarding the alleged misconduct and there is no evidence of any formal complaints being made against Kevin Spacey during his tenure,” the theatre said, adding that it took responsibility for what came to light and publicly apologised
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More