On Thursday 27 July, just under a month after his trial began at Southwark Crown Court, US actor Kevin Spacey was found not guilty on nine charges of sexual assault. The 64-year-old former artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre broke down as the jury returned their verdict, thanking court staff and stopping to speak of his relief to journalists waiting on the court steps.
Over the past six years, Spacey has consistently denied the allegations. In the US in 2020, he was sued by actor Anthony Rapp, who accused him of assaulting him when he was 14 years old. A civil case took place in October 2022, where Spacey was found not guilty by a Manhattan jury.
With his UK legal case now settled, though, it’s unclear whether Spacey will attempt to return to his high-profile acting career, which ended abruptly in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him by numerous men, pertaining to his time in Hollywood and working in London’s theatre world.
At the time Spacey was a household name, thanks to his Academy Award-winning performances in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty and his role as corrupt politician Frank Underwood in Netflix’s first hit television series, House of Cards. He had also received praise for revitalising the reputation of London’s Old Vic, where he served as artistic director from 2003 until 2015, inviting stars including Neve Campbell and Jeff Goldblum to tread the boards there.
After allegations about his behaviour were made publicly in both the UK and the US, however, Hollywood scrambled to erase him. He was removed from projects in the works, including Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World (where his scenes as oil tycoon J Paul Getty were reshot with Christopher Plummer) and Péter Soós’ Genghis Khan biopic Gateway to the West (he was replaced in the role of Khan by Ray Stevenson). Netflix also chose to conclude the behemoth hit House of Cards, with Robin Wright reprising her role as Clare Underwood, while Spacey’s character was killed off-screen.
In the wake of the case, regardless of the acquittal, it seems unlikely Netflix will release Gore, the last project Spacey shot before the allegations came to light, Michael Hoffman’s biopic of American politician and author Gore Vidal. Spacey played the titular role, and the film, which reportedly featured several graphic sex scenes, centred on Vidal’s attempt to seduce a much younger man.
Spacey has booked a few gigs since his legal troubles began, but those are a far cry from the reported $20 million payday he commanded in House of Cards. His most notable role during this period was as a police detective in Italian director Franco Nero’s 2022 drama The Man Who Drew God, in which his dialogue was dubbed over into Italian by Roberto Pedicini.
But will A-List talent in Hollywood want to work with Spacey again? In 2018 his House of Cards co-star Wright claimed she didn’t really know Spacey beyond their scenes together, but it’s possible other stars – and indeed studios – will be wary of attracting any residual whiff of scandal, despite his acquittal.
Allegations, whether of a criminal nature or not, don’t always signal the end of a career in Hollywood, depending on the star’s popularity and power. While actors like Ansel Elgort and Armie Hammer have seen their popularity decline in recent years following allegations of sexual assault (both men have denied the charge, neither has been subject to legal proceedings) and James Franco has been broadly absent from Hollywood for several years after admitting to sleeping with a number of his acting students (a sexual misconduct lawsuit brought by two of the women was settled out of court), Johnny Depp has seemingly been able to bounce back from his very public divorce and civil cases concerning alleged domestic abuse against ex-wife Amber Heard.
In 2021 Depp described himself as a victim of cancel culture, despite the fact that he has consistently booked gigs both as an actor and musician since Heard’s accusations, and enjoyed significant fan support. In 2022 he appeared in Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty fashion show, and in May of this year, he received a warm reception at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, where he starred in French director Maïwenn’s period biopic Madame du Barry, which opened the festival.
Depp is next set to direct a film about Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani, co-produced by Al Pacino. Similarly, Shia Labeouf, who will stand trial in December following accusations of abuse from his ex-partner musician FKA Twigs (he has denied the allegations), is set to co-star in Francis Ford Coppola’s much-anticipated Megalopolis, alongside Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, and Dustin Hoffman, who has also been accused in the past of misconduct (Hoffman also denied the allegations, and none of the allegations against him have resulted in legal proceedings).
Perhaps Spacey will consider a move to directing. It was announced earlier this week that the Venice Film Festival would show films by Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson – three high-profile directors who have all been accused of sexual assault. Allen was accused of sexually abusing his daughter Dylan by his ex-wife Mia Farrow in 1992 – Allen denied the allegations, and no charges were ever brought, but Dylan reiterated her claim in an open letter, published in 2014.
Meanwhile, Polanski is unable to travel beyond France, Poland and Switzerland due to an outstanding warrant for his arrest in the United States for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 (at the time he accepted a plea bargain which involved pleading guilty to a lesser charge, but fled before being formally sentenced), while Besson was cleared of rape charges in France earlier this year after being accused by actor Sand Van Roy, who appeared in his previous film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The Venice Film Festival’s director, Alberto Barbera, said he did not see an issue with inviting these directors.
The rules in Hollywood around who gets a redemption story following troubling allegations against them seem arbitrary, but with millions owed in legal expenses, it seems likely Spacey will be looking to get back in Hollywood’s good graces. It remains to be seen if the industry – and audiences – will embrace him.
