Kevin Spacey criticizes forthcoming documentary that will examine abuse allegations: ‘I will not sit back and be attacked’

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — Kevin Spacey is addressing the upcoming documentary “Spacey Unmasked,” which is set to cover the allegations of abuse that he has faced in recent years.

Spacey wrote on his X page on Thursday that throughout this past week, he’s “repeatedly requested” that Channel 4 – the UK-based network set to air the doc – give him more than one week “to respond to allegations made against me dating back 48 years and provide me with sufficient details to investigate these matters.”

“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,” he wrote.

The embattled actor continued to write that he “will not sit back and be attacked by a dying network’s one-sided ‘documentary’ about me in their desperate attempt for ratings.”

“Each time I have been given the time and a proper forum to defend myself, the allegations have failed under scrutiny and I have been exonerated,” he added before directing his followers to his X page this weekend to see his response after the documentary airs.

When contacted by CNN by email, Channel 4 commented that the actor “has been given sufficient opportunity to respond.”

Commissioned by Channel 4 and streaming on Max in the US, “Spacey Unmasked” is a two-part docuseries that will examine Spacey’s career and subsequent fall “amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior,” according to Variety. (Max and CNN are both owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)

CNN has reached out to Max and a representative for Spacey for comment.

Last year, Spacey was found not guilty of seven counts of sexual assault and two counts of other serious sexual offenses following a four-week trial in London’s Southwark Crown Court. The allegations covered a period between 2004 and 2013, when Spacey served as artistic director at the Old Vic theater in the British capital. He previously pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

In 2022, a New York jury found Spacey not liable for battery in a trial in which actor Anthony Rapp alleged Spacey picked him up and laid on top of him after a party in 1986.

Spacey also faced criminal charges of indecent assault and battery in connection with a July 2016 incident, where he was accused of groping a young man at a Nantucket bar. He had pleaded not guilty at the time and in 2019, Massachusetts prosecutors dropped the case after the man who accused him of assault pleaded the fifth on the witness stand.

Spacey has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in 1995’s “The Usual Suspects” and 1999’s “American Beauty.” He has returned to acting in recent years after leaving “House of Cards,” the Netflix series in which he starred for five seasons, before being fired in 2017 over allegations of misconduct on and off the set.

“Spacey Unmasked” will air on Channel 4 in the UK on May 6 and 7.

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CNN’s Catherine Nicholls, Christian Edwards, Jean Casarez and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.