Kevin Spacey Speaks Out About “Inappropriate Behaviour, Never Illegal” Ahead Of UK Documentary
Kevin Spacey has spoken out against allegations of his illegal behaviour, ahead of a documentary about him due to air next week.
The actor, who was previously cleared of sexual assault after trials in the US and UK, gave an interview to former GB News presenter Dan Wootton on his Outspoken channel on YouTube, where Spacey said that he may have at times in the past behaved inappropriately, but denied that he had behaved illegally.
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He told Wootton:
“I take full responsibility for my past behaviour and my actions. But I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologise to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me.
“I’ve never told someone that if they give me sexual favours, then I will help them out with their career, ever.
“I’ve clearly hooked up with, you know, some men who thought they might get ahead in their careers by having a relationship with me. But there was no conversation with me, it was all part of their plan, one that was always destined to fail, because I wasn’t in on the deal.”
And he said: “Were there times when I would flirt with some of the people who were involved in those programmes who were in their 20s? Yes. Did I ever hook up with another actor? Yes. Did I make a clumsy pass at someone who wasn’t interested as it turned out? Yes.”
He added: “That may not have been the best decision and it’s not one that I would do today. But it happened. It wasn’t illegal, and nor has it ever been alleged to have been illegal.”
Spacey Unmasked, a Channel 4 documentary, is due to be released next week. Spacey previously wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he had not been given the chance to respond to any allegations in the program.
The BBC reports that, in a statement released on Friday night, lawyers acting for Mr Spacey said there was no public interest in the public being misinformed with the publication of “false and unverified allegations” which were “largely historic, dating as far back as almost 50 years ago.”
Mr Spacey, the lawyers said, had “not been provided with anything more than very general, anonymised information” about the claims and had been left “with little choice but to make his own public statement” in the form of his interview with Mr Wootton.
More allegations about Spacey’s past behaviour have emerged on the eve of the documentary airing about the double-Oscar winner.
A former actor, Ruari Cannon, told UK paper The i that Spacey touched him in a highly intimate way in June 2013, when he was 21.
Canon told the i that the alleged incident occurred at The Savoy hotel after press night for the play Sweet Bird of Youth.
Cannon’s is one of a number of allegations in the Spacey doc including another from someone who says Spacey grabbed his genitals dating back to when Spacey was a teenager. A third young actor says he was groped by Spacey while on the set of House of Cards.
On Thursday, Spacey wrote on X:
“Over the last week, I have repeatedly requested that @Channel4 afford me more than 7 days to respond to allegations made against me dating back 48 years and provide me with sufficient details to investigate these matters,” Spacey said. “Channel 4 has refused on the basis that they feel that asking for a response in 7 days to new, anonymized and non-specific allegations is a ‘fair opportunity’ for me to refute any allegations made against me.”
In a statement preceding Spacey’s X post, Channel 4 had said it asked the actor to respond to allegations from multiple men, and that “the deadline for that reply has passed and no formal on-the-record statement has been provided.”
Spacey Unmasked will air Monday and is produced by Oscar-nominee Mike Lerner and ex-Channel 4 News boss Dorothy Byrne.
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