US Hollywood star Kevin Spacey is expected in court this Wednesday in London in the criminal case for alleged sexual assault. The 63-year-old two-time Oscar winner (“American Beauty”, “The Usual Suspects”) is accused of sexual offenses against four men. The former star of the Netflixseries “House of Cards” pleaded not guilty to all counts and made it clear that he viewed the trial as an opportunity to clear his name. If found guilty, he could face a prison sentence.
The sex offenses he is charged with range from molestation to coercion and are believed to have occurred in London and Gloucestershire between 2001 and 2013. Spacey, who was artistic director at London’s renowned Old Vic theater from 2004 to 2015, is expected to begin the trial on Wednesday morning at Southwark Crown Court. The hearing is scheduled to last four weeks.
In 2022 there was a civil trial in the USA
This isn’t the first time the actor has faced court allegations of sexual misconduct. Last year he had to face a civil lawsuit in the United States. Actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of sexually assaulting and injuring him at a party in 1986. He demanded $40 million in damages. But Spacey won the case. Two other civil lawsuits in the US have been dropped.
Guilty or not, Spacey’s acting career was temporarily over when the allegations surfaced. Rapp’s allegations, which were made public for the first time in 2017 in the course of the MeToo debate, led to many other allegations and shaken Spacey’s then successful career. Netflix ended its collaboration on the hit series House of Cards and is suing him for damages after complaints about him from employees on the set. The Old Vic also distanced itself from Spacey – allegations had also been made there. Scenes with him in the thriller All The Money in the World were even removed after the fact.
Spacey: ‘To an extent, I was an asshole’
Very shy of the media for a long time, Spacey opened up to the “Zeit” magazine, which published a detailed report in mid-June about several conversations with the previously popular Hollywood star. The ‘Time’ writer visited Spacey at home in Baltimore, at an awards ceremony in Turin and on a film set in London where he was working on a low-budget film – one of a handful of roles he landed after the allegations surfaced.
Spacey was thoughtful about his past behavior towards others. “I think I tried really hard not to be an asshole. But I think to some extent I was an asshole,” he told the magazine of his interactions with other people as a star. He did not comment on the allegations made against him in London.
Referring to the London trial, he expressed confidence that the allegations would collapse. That was the case with the Rapp lawsuit and will be the case again, Spacey was convinced. However, he will probably no longer be able to repair his image in the media. Nevertheless, he hopes that after an acquittal in London, orders from Hollywood will come again. In ten years, according to Spacey, all this will be forgotten. His work will outlive him, it will be remembered.
