Kevin Spacey says he was ‘too handsy’ in the past
By Lianne Kolirin, CNN
(CNN) — Kevin Spacey has said that he was “too handsy” and that he’s been guilty of “pushing the boundaries” in the past, in a lengthy interview released Tuesday.
The two-time Oscar winner was responding to claims of inappropriate behavior in an interview that ran for more than 90 minutes.
“I’m absolutely 150% prepared to take accountability for those things and mistakes that I made… bad, bad, bad, behavior some times,” he told Piers Morgan Uncensored on YouTube.
Last year, Spacey, 64, 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. 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.
When asked by Morgan what he meant by his “bad behavior” in the interview, Spacey replied, “pushing the boundaries… being too handsy, touching someone sexually… in a way that I didn’t know at the time they didn’t want.”
Morgan responded: “Some people would say that that is criminal, that if you grope people in a sexual way, against their wishes, that that is a crime.”
Spacey denied the suggestion, saying “groped” is a “very odd word.”
“Personally… I have caressed people, I have been gentle with people… that is the way that I am. You’re making a pass at someone, you don’t want to be aggressive, you want to be gentle,” he said. “So I think the word itself is not a word that I would associate with my experience.”
Nevertheless, he now sees younger actors may have felt unable to speak up.
“I will never behave in the ways that I did previously. Ever,” he insisted.
Earlier, he admitted that when he looked back “there were bouts with arrogance, there were bouts with my ego.”
“My goal is no longer to be the best actor – which it was – my goal is now to prove that I’m a man of good character.”
At times, Spacey appeared tearful, particularly when asked where he’s living.
He said he faced legal bills of many millions, adding: “This week where I had been living in Baltimore is being foreclosed on, my house is being sold at auction.”
When asked why it is being foreclosed, Spacey said he “can’t pay the bills” that he owes.
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, following allegations of misconduct.
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