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Spacey is returning to the screen whether we like it or not.
By Alice Kelly — Written on May 24, 2021
Kevin Spacey is making his return to film for the first time since facing numerous sexual misconduct allegations made by multilple accusers.
Spacey will play a police officer investigating the case of a man who has been wrongly accused of sexually abusing children. The film’s director, Franco Nero, will play the accused.
The Italian film — titled “L’uomo Che Disegno Dio” or “The Man Who Drew God” — will be the first time the 61-year-old actor has been cast in any new productions since facing allegations of pedophilia and sexual misconduct in 2017.
“I’m very happy Kevin agreed to participate in my film,” Nero said of the casting. “I consider him a great actor and I can’t wait to start the movie.”
How did Kevin Spacey, who has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by dozens, end up in a new movie playing a sex crime detective?
Nero did not offer any insight on whether or not Spacey’s past scandals informed the decision to cast him in this role, saying only how pleased he is that Spacey agreed to take part.
“I’m very happy Kevin agreed to participate in my film,” Nero told ABC News. “I consider him a great actor and I can’t wait to start the movie.”
What has Kevin Spacey been accused of?
Kevin Spacey has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 30 alleged victims, some of whom claim to have been underage at the time.
Spacey has escaped prosecution for a number of sexual abuse and harassment allegations, which first came to light in 2017.
The actor has been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by at least 20 young men in incidents they say occured at the Old Vic theater in London, where Spacey served as artistic director between 2005 and 2015.
That same year, actor Anthony Rapp came forward to accuse Spacey of making sexual advances toward him and assaulting him in 1986 when he was 14.
At the time, Spacey apologized but claimed to have no recollection of the assault.
He also came out as gay, which drew sharp criticism from people who believed Spacey was making a disturbing link between pedophilia and homosexuality, or that he was trying to overshadow Rapp’s claims.
In a 2020 lawsuit against Spacey, an anonymous accuser, C.D., joined Rapp in alleging that the actor had assaulted him in 1981 when he was also 14.
C.D. claimed that Spacey forced him to participate in anal and oral sex on multiple occasions. In one incident he says he was forced to flee Spacey’s apartment when the actor refused to stop.
The case was dropped in 2021 when C.D. refused to waive his anonymity, as had been requested by a judge.
Another case taken up by a massage therapist in 2019, who accused Spacey of groping him during a session, was dismissed when the alleged victim died unexpectedly before the trial.
Spacey was also investigated in Nantucket after a young man accused the actor of groping him in a bar. The case was dropped in 2019 when the alleged victim asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify further about text messages he deleted from his phone before handing it into police for investigation.
Spacey has had limited work since 2017.
In the aftermath of these allegations, Spacey was dropped from his starring role in Netflix’s “House Of Cards” and his scenes in Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World” were reshot with Christopher Plummer instead, who won an Oscar nomination for his performance.
While he did appear in “Billionaire Boys Club,” which was shot before the allegations came to light, Spacey has made few on-screen appearances apart from some annual self-shot Christmas videos in which he plays his “House Of Cards” character Frank Underwood.
Spacey is believed to have been spending much of his time in Europe since being accused of various sexual abuses.
In 2019, he read a poem about a wounded boxer to crowds at a museum in Rome before being spotted performing “La Bamba” on the streets of Seville a month later.
Alice Kelly is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Catch her covering all things social justice, news, and entertainment. Keep up with her Twitter for more.