The Weinstein Effect

Kevin Spacey Responds to Alleged Sexual Misconduct [Updated]

The two-time Oscar winner does not deny actor Anthony Rapp’s allegations.
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Left, courtesy of Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage; right, courtesy of Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

Update (October 30, 2017, 12:23 a.m.): Responding to allegations from actor Anthony Rapp published in BuzzFeed just hours before, Kevin Spacey posted an apology on his personal Twitter account late Sunday night. Though claiming he couldn’t recall it, Spacey didn’t deny Rapp’s account that he had approached the younger actor—who was only 14 at the time of the alleged encounter—in a sexual manner. Spacey also directly addressed the long-standing secrecy around his own sexuality saying: “I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior.”

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The original story, including complete details on Rapp’s allegations, continues below.

Inspired by the ever-increasing number of women in Hollywood speaking out about powerful players like Harvey Weinstein and James Toback, Rent and Star Trek: Discovery star Anthony Rapp has decided to go public with a story he’s told behind closed doors for decades. The actor claims that in 1986, when Rapp was only 14, Kevin Spacey made an aggressive sexual advance towards him. The two-time Oscar winner was 26 at the time of the alleged incident.

In a wide-ranging interview with BuzzFeed’s Adam B. Vary, Rapp alleges that while both he and Spacey were appearing on Broadway—in Precious Sons and Long Day’s Journey into Night, respectively—the older actor put the teenager on his bed and climbed on top of Rapp. The alleged incident occurred at the end of a party Spacey was hosting, Rapp says, after he had met Rapp at a theater event and later invited the teen and a friend out clubbing. Rapp, an Illinois transplant who took a semester off school and moved to New York with his mother to appear on Broadway, says he managed to evade Spacey’s advances. He details the encounter to BuzzFeed:

Spacey, Rapp recalled, “sort of stood in the doorway, kind of swaying. My impression when he came in the room was that he was drunk.” Rapp doesn’t remember Spacey saying anything to him. Instead, Rapp said, “He picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don’t, like, squirm away initially, because I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then he lays down on top of me.”

Rapp says that he froze while the older actor lay on top of him and tried to “seduce” him, then managed to “squirm” away. “The older I get, and the more I know, I feel very fortunate that something worse didn’t happen,” he tells BuzzFeed. “And at the same time, the older I get, the more I can’t believe it. I could never imagine [that] anyone else I know would do something like that to a 14-year-old boy.” Spacey and his representatives did not respond to BuzzFeed’s multiple attempts to request comment.

Though Rapp is only now publicly naming Spacey, he has told versions of this story for decades, according to BuzzFeed. A number of Rapp’s acquaintances and his brother confirmed to the website that the actor has been speaking privately about his alleged encounter with Spacey since 1990. A version of story, with Spacey’s name redacted, was even printed in a 2001 interview with The Advocate. Bruce Steele, then the executive editor of The Advocate, confirmed to BuzzFeed that the magazine left out Spacey’s name.

BuzzFeed also cites an October 13 tweet from news anchor Heather Unruh which went viral in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations. When approached by BuzzFeed for comment, Unruh declined to go into specifics.

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In 2010, Spacey addressed the persistent rumors around his sexuality—though not anything about his purported relationships with younger men—in an interview with the Daily Beast. “I have not given up my right to privacy,” he said. “It’s just a line I’ve never crossed and never will. . . . No one’s personal life is in the public interest. It’s gossip, bottom line. End of story.” Rapp, who has been out of the closet since the early 90s, doesn’t linger on Spacey’s sexuality in his BuzzFeed interview—saying, simply, of the night in question, “I saw on [Spacey’s bathroom] counter next to the sink a picture of him having his arm around a man. So I think on some level I was like, Oh. He’s gay. I guess.”

Though rumors have been swirling around Spacey for years, Rapp is the first person to go on record with an allegation of predatory behavior. “Part of what allowed the Harvey situation to occur was that there was this witting and unwitting conspiracy of silence,” Rapp told BuzzFeed of his decision to finally go public. “The only way these things can continue is if there’s no attention being paid to it, if it’s getting forgotten.”