The actor told Piers Morgan he had taken “accountability for those places where I have behaved badly.”
Kevin Spacey appeared emotional as he sat down for an interview with Piers Morgan this week—one of few onscreen conversations the actor has had since he was hit with sexual misconduct allegations almost seven years ago.
Last July, Spacey was found not guilty of sexually assaulting four men, following a trial in the U.K. During the court proceedings, the former House of Cards star had denied nine charges that included seven counts of sexual assault. His accusers had alleged that the incidents took place between 2001 and 2013.
While Spacey’s accusers had branded the two-time Oscar winner a “vile sexual predator”, the American Beauty star countered that the accusations he faced were a “stab in the back” from men with whom he said he’d had consensual encounters.
He did, however, admit to touching one man’s crotch in what he described as a “clumsy pass” after misinterpreting the signals, rather than a sexual assault. Spacey, who successfully fought similar accusations in the U.S., is currently involved in a civil trial over an allegation that he sexually assaulted a man in 2008.
Spacey’s dramatic fall from grace came in October 2017, when Anthony Rapp alleged in an interview that the actor had attempted to “seduce” him at a party in 1986 when he was aged 14 and the Oscar winner was 26. Spacey released a statement after the story broke, in which he said he had no memory of the alleged incident, while also offering Rapp an apology.
More men subsequently came forward with similar accusations, leading to an abrupt halt to Spacey’s Hollywood career and removal from several of his projects. In November 2017, Spacey was dropped from his leading role in Netflix’s House of Cards and he was ordered to pay approximately $31 million to the studio behind the series for violating their sexual harassment policy and for breach of contract.
In recent weeks, Spacey has reemerged on the media circuit and last month spoke with NewsNation host Chris Cuomo about the aftermath of the allegations.
In a more extensive interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored that lasted over 90 minutes, Spacey delved into a range of talking points.
“It’s been a very interesting and, I think, important couple of weeks where I’ve had the opportunity to start to be able to talk about that things that for me, in some cases, I’ve never talked about before”, said Spacey, who also told Morgan that he had also taken “accountability for those places where I have behaved badly.”
Newsweek has listed some of the highlights of the interview.’Handsy’ Past
During the interview, Spacey admitted to previously “pushing the boundaries”, prompting Morgan to clarify what he meant by that.
“Being too handsy, touching someone sexually in a way that I didn’t know at the time they didn’t want”, Spacey responded.
When pressed on whether such behavior was potentially criminal, Spacey said he would not use the word “grope” to describe what he had done, adding that he had “been gentle with people.
