The rise and fall of Kevin Spacey, from star to persona non grata of Hollywood

Kevin Spacey built a formidable career giving life to enigmatic, dangerous and charismatic anti-heroes, but a series of suspicions about sexual assault relegated him to the rank of persona non grata in Hollywood and today they have him in the dock in the United Kingdom.

63 years old and a two-time Oscar winner, he first did theater and then jumped to the big screen, where he triumphed with the box office hits”American Beauty(1999), “Seven” (“Capitals sins”), “usual suspects“(1995) or”Superman Returns: The return(2006).

But since 2017, Spacey has rarely been seen outside of court. He was one of the first stars singled out by the global #MeToo movement., arose in 2017 from the case of the all-powerful American film producer Harvey Weinstein. The actor always denies the charges but this led him to reveal his homosexuality.

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UK trial: what Kevin Spacey is accused of

On June 28, American actor Kevin Spacey appeared before an English court at the start of a highly anticipated trial for 12 sexual assaults on four men between 2001 and 2013 that he “strongly” denies.

He winner of two Oscars, for “American Beauty” (1999) and “Usual Suspects” (1995) He was accused in November by the British prosecutor of seven sexual assaults on a man whom he forced, among other things, “to participate in a non-consensual sexual relationship” between 2001 and 2004.

These charges were added to his heavy file, which in May 2022 had accused him of five sexual assaults on three men between 2005 and 2013, when he was director of the prestigious Old Vic theater in London.

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space fire first accused in the state of Massachusetts of having put his hands on the genitals of an 18-year-old boy in a bar in July 2016. But these charges were withdrawn in 2019. In October 2022, the New York justice acquitted him in a civil proceeding for sexually touching actor Anthony Rapp during an evening in Manhattan in 1986.

In October 2020, he was ordered to pay nearly $31 million to MRC, the production company of “House of Cards,” as compensation for lost revenue attributed to his departure from the series. A Los Angeles judge granted this compensation last August.

In one of the pre-trial hearings, the actor’s lawyer, Patrick Gibbs, assured that “Spacey strongly denies any wrongdoing in this case” and hopes to “defend his innocence” throughout the process, which could last a month.

At the beginning of the trial, the American actor was described as a “sexual harasser” by the prosecution. Spacey, 63, he is “a man who does not respect boundaries or personal space”, who “likes to make other people (…) feel uncomfortable, a sexual harasser”he claimed Christine Agnew, representative of the prosecution.

At a subsequent hearing, one of the men accusing the actor said the Hollywood star is an aggressive “predator” who was uncomfortable with his sexual orientation. He said Spacey assaulted him multiple times, including while he was driving him to a party in the 2000s.

“He grabbed me (my genitals) so hard that I almost left the lane,” the witness explained.which added that the handsome young men were heralded against the behavior of the actor, whom it described as a “predatory” who was “aggressive”.

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“I can’t bear to see that man. he makes me feel bad“The complainant claimed. “He was clearly very confused about his own sexuality,” he added.

Given his cooperation with justice, the actor is released without precautionary measures, which allowed him to continue working, although his career has been severely affected by the accusations and others previously launched in the United States of which he was acquitted.

As a result of the accusations, was fired from the hit Netflix series “House of Cards,” where he played the lead character, the Machiavellian US President Frank Underwood. She was also left out of a Ridley Scott movie, “All the Money in the World,” in which she was replaced by Christopher Plummer.

“My life goes ahead. I have never hidden, I have not lived in a cave. I have gone to restaurants, I have seen my friends, I have met with people who have defended and supported me”declared before the Italian press last January.

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Rising star in Hollywood

Kevin Spacey Fowler was born in New Jersey in 1959., grew up in California, where he attended military school for a short time, from which he was expelled. The actor spoke about a difficult childhood, with a father he has described as a “white supremacist” and a “neo-Nazi”, who despised gays and did not value his son’s interest in theatre.

Despite that, in 1979 Spacey enrolled in Juilliard, the art school of New York. Her greatest success in those early years of theater came in 1986, in “Long day’s journey into the night“, in which he shared the scene with Jack Lemmon.

His first role in a movie was in “Run Out of Cake” that same year, starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.. Spacey played a thief on the subway in the production directed by Mike Nichols, with whom he would work again in 1988 in “Lady Guns.”

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Spacey also groped television and drew acclaim as a paranoid, psychotic and incestuous young crime boss in the series “Wiseguy.” In 1995 he played the murderer in the “Seven” series. in addition He won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in “The Usual Suspects.”“.

Spacey’s consecration came in 1999 with “American Beauty”, in which he plays a middle-aged father who goes crazy for a teenager. He won his second Oscar, this time for best actor, with that film that won five Academy Awards, including best picture.

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In the following years, Spacey garnered mixed reviews as he leaned towards lighter roles. In 2003, he announced that he was taking over the artistic direction of London’s Old Vic Theatre, and his ten-year tenure at the historic theater was highly acclaimed.

He starred in and drew actors and directors to diverse and daring productions, reveling in Shakespeare’s “Richard III” and putting in classic American scenes by Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. During that time, she also garnered applause on the big screen as the nefarious villain Lex Luthor in “Superman Returns: The return“.

In 2013, Spacey contributed to the streaming revolution in Hollywood by taking the lead in the first big Netflix series, “House of Cards”, in which he played an ambitious and unscrupulous congressman who reaches the White House. The series became a cultural phenomenon. It was the first Emmy-winning and nominated series exclusively online, and also ushered in the era of binge-watching.

Fall to the rhythm of #MeToo

Spacey’s empire began to unravel in October 2017. Just three weeks after suspicions against producer Harvey Weinstein came to light, Spacey was hit hard by the #MeToo movement when actor Anthony Rapp accused him of sexually assaulting him at the age of 14 at a party in New York in 1986.

Spacey quickly apologized, but was criticized for trying to divert attention from the news by finally confirming that he is gay, an open secret in Hollywood for years. Since then, his star has gone out.

In less than a month, Spacey was Accused of sexual assault by multiple men in US and UK, banned by Netflix and, surprisingly, removed at the last minute of the film “All the money in the world.”

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