Kevin Spacey, the two-time Oscar-winning actor, declared on Monday that his career is finally bouncing back after being derailed by a series of sexual assault and harassment allegations in 2017. Appearing on Bill Maher's "Club Random" podcast, Spacey said, "I feel much more welcomed, and I think that things are moving in the direction that we hoped they were moving in."
Allegations and Legal Battles
Spacey's fall from grace began when Anthony Rapp, known for "Rent" and "Star Trek: Discovery," alleged that Spacey made a sexual advance on him when Rapp was just 14 years old. Another accusation came from Harry Dreyfuss, son of actor Richard Dreyfuss, who claimed Spacey groped him while his father was in the room. These accusations led to Spacey being fired from his Netflix series "House of Cards" and replaced by Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott's film "All the Money in the World."
Despite the damage to his public profile, Spacey has successfully defended himself in court. He was found not liable for battery in Rapp's civil case, and a jury in London acquitted him of nine criminal charges of sexual assault from four complainants. Spacey proudly told Maher, "We won in every court we’ve gone into with a jury."
Comparing Scandals and Admitting Fault
Maher pushed back, saying, "Look, I'm not going to lie to you, I go by numbers with scandals... There's too much smoke to be no fire." Spacey responded, "Oh, I never said there was no fire. It just wasn't a raging forest fire. It was a small kitchen fire that could have been put out with an extinguisher." He then admitted, "I hit on a lot of guys."
Spacey suggested that the scandals would have been less damaging if he were a different type of celebrity. "If I had been a sports figure, I would have been benched for seven games," he said.
Coming Out and Closeted Life
The conversation also touched on Spacey's decision to come out as gay in the wake of Rapp's accusation, a move widely criticized as an attempt to deflect attention. Spacey explained, "I was fiercely closeted. I didn't want anyone to know anything about me. And of course, I thought I was so clever that nobody knew, but of course, kind of everybody knew."
Maher expressed confusion about why Spacey hid his sexuality, saying, "There’s a point where it was so much cooler to be gay... I don’t get a lot of breaks from the media, especially they’re a little too woke and blah blah blah, if I, who they’re pretty rough on, if I, at some point came out as gay, it would be like, it would be the greatest thing that ever happened."
