Kevin Spacey won at Cannes but Hollywood’s ‘sharia court’ finds him guilty

Industry insiders are conflicted as the Oscar winner, acquitted twice for sexual misconduct, plots a comeback.

At Cannes on Tuesday, Kevin Spacey looked every inch the star, relaxed and smiling in a tuxedo and purple bow tie as he mingled on the red carpet. Later, he bounded on stage to accept a lifetime achievement award. However, as he clutched his golden statuette, the 65-year-old actor’s voice cracked.

“Who would have ever thought,” he said wryly, as he reflected on eight years facing dozens of sexual misconduct allegations, “that honouring someone who has been exonerated in every single courtroom he’s ever walked into would be thought of as a brave idea?”

Kevin Spacey upon receiving his award at Cannes on Tuesday. Picture: Sarah Meysonnier/Reuters

The two-time Oscar winner went on to compare his exile from Hollywood to the blacklisting of screenwriters under Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist witch-hunt in the 1940s and 1950s. “There are times when one has to stand up for principle,” Spacey said. “I have learnt a lot from history: it very often repeats itself. The blacklist was a terrible time in our industry, but we must learn from it so that it never happens again.”

The Better World Fund, which gave Spacey the excellence in film and television honour this week, said it valued cinema and art in the service of humanity, focusing on subjects such as education and women’s rights.

Although Spacey is hoping the award catalyses a Hollywood comeback, the big studios are unlikely to welcome his return, sources told The Times.

Spacey with Annette Bening in American Beauty. Picture: Lorey Sebastian/Reuters

… with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in Seven…Picture: Alamy

… and Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro and Gabriel Byrne in The Usual Suspects. Picture: Alamy

He was arraigned on a sexual assault charge in Massachusetts in 2019 before his appearances in London courts generated significant media attention. Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images

One producer said that Spacey, famed for his roles in American Beauty and The Usual Suspects, deserved a second chance, but judgmental studios were still “performing as a sort of odd sharia court, outside of judicial jurisdiction, pretending to be judge and jury on a hearsay whim”.

The filmmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added: “So many lives have been ruined for no reason. Kevin Spacey received a not-guilty verdict.”

Since 2017, at the height of the MeToo movement, Spacey has been accused of sexual assault or inappropriate behaviour by more than 30 men on both sides of the Atlantic.

Though he was cleared in every civil and criminal case, Paul Epstein, an Emmy award-winning producer, said the allegations cast a long shadow.

“Even if he hasn’t been convicted, they’re very hard to come back from,” he said. “And people in Hollywood tend to have a fairly long memory about that kind of thing.”

Spacey’s character, Frank Underwood, was written out of House of Cards for its final season. Picture: Kobal Collection/Shutterstock

Anthony Rapp was the first accuser to come forward in 2017, saying Spacey had molested him when he was 14 when the pair appeared in a Broadway show in 1986. Spacey said he did not recall the alleged incident but apologised for “what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour”. At the age of 58, he came out as gay.

That was not enough to save his career. He was deserted by agents and fired from his role in the Netflix political drama series House of Cards. Sir Ridley Scott erased him from his film All the Money in the World. By 2018, Spacey was said to be keeping a low profile in Maryland, where he had moved to film House of Cards.

Rapp’s lawsuit went to trial in 2022. The jury took just over an hour to acquit Spacey. The next year he was acquitted on nine sexual assault charges from four men in London, stemming from his time as artistic director at the Old Vic. Another assault case against him, in Massachusetts, was dropped.

The European film industry began to welcome his return. Last year, Spacey received a lifetime achievement award in Italy. He was cast in the Italian drama The Man Who Drew God.

Another producer said that while no one doubted Spacey’s talents, big studio bosses were too risk-averse to sign him.

“I don’t see in the immediate future, given any major studio’s corporate mandate on attempting to stay out of controversy, how any chairman would say, ‘OK, let’s put him in the 50th Marvel movie’,” the producer said.

The Times