Crew members from ‘House of Cards’ have come forward with allegations against star Kevin Spacey, including sexual assault and misconduct.
Less than a week after actor Kevin Spacey, 58, publicly apologized to allegedly making predatory sexual moves on a then 14-year-old Anthony Rapp in 1986, eight staffers from his Netflix series House of Cards have come forward with shocking sexual misconduct claims of their own. In a bombshell CNN report, a former production assistant alleges that Spacey sexually assaulted him during one of the early seasons of the show. Each staffer spoke anonymously for fear of professional repercussions, but detailed accounts of the actor allegedly targeting young male staffers with unwanted touching, crude comments and made the show’s workplace “toxic.”
Spacey’s tweeted out an apology to Rapp on Oct. 30, and publicly came out as a gay manfor the first time. Following his acknowledgement that the abuse could have happened, Netflix announced that House of Cards would be ending after the current season six filming wraps. Production on the show has been halted and the actor has entered a rehab facility for undisclosed treatment. Now employees from the series are sharing horror stories from the set with CNN. The production assistant says he was assigned to drive Spacey to the set outside Baltimore when the actor allegedly shoved his hand down the young man’s pants and began touching him. “I was in a state of shock,” he said. “He was a man in a very powerful position on the show and I was someone very low on the totem pole and on the food chain there.”
Later he helped bring Spacey’s belongings to his trailer and that the star blocked his exit and allegedly made “inappropriate contact.” “I told him, ‘I don’t think I’m ok with this, I don’t think I’m comfortable with this,’” the production assistant said, saying that Spacey then became “visibly flustered,” fled the trailer and left the set. The PA said he reported the incident to a supervisor, but the solution was to never have him and Spacey be alone together when on set. See pics of Kevin Spacey, here.
An employee who has worked on all six seasons of House of Cards claims that Spacey touched him inappropriately on numerous occasions. “He would put his hands on me in weird ways,” the crew member said. “He would come in and massage my shoulders from behind or put his hands around me or touch my stomach sometimes in weird ways that in normal everyday conversation would not be appropriate.”
A former female production assistant who worked on several seasons of the show said she witnessed Spacey’s sexual misconduct with male crew members. “It was very known that Kevin was inappropriate, and males I worked with complained to me about how they felt uncomfortable,” she told CNN. “Kevin does this thing which was play fights with them in order to touch them.” She said she saw Spacey approach “multiple people” to “say hello, greet them, shake their hand and pull their hand down to his crotch and touch their crotch. I have friends say he reached up their shorts on set.”
When CNN asked Netflix about the allegations, the streaming service said that they had sent a rep to the set on Oct. 30, and that they just found out about an incident on the show. “Netflix was just made aware of one incident, five years ago, that we were informed was resolved swiftly,” the statement said. “On Tuesday, in collaboration with MRC, we suspended production, knowing that Kevin Spacey wasn’t scheduled to work until Wednesday. Netflix is not aware of any other incidents involving Kevin Spacey on-set. We continue to collaborate with MRC and other production partners to maintain a safe and respectful working environment. We will continue to work with MRC during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the production, and have nothing further to share at this time.”
MRC is the production company behind House of Cards and they’ve implemented ways for employees to safely come forwards with any allegations of their own. The company told CNN that they have set up “an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors, and sexual harassment legal advisors for the crew.” Oh man… Hollywood’s sexual harassment and abuse scandals just keep growing more disturbing by the day.
HollywoodLifers, are you shocked that Kevin Spacey allegedly targeted crew members of House of Cards for sexual misconduct?
