Kevin Spacey feels 'much more welcomed' in Hollywood as he downplays misconduct allegations as a 'small kitchen fire’
Two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey has sparked intense online debate after claiming his career is finally on an upward swing, downplaying the numerous sexual misconduct allegations that derailed his life as a "small kitchen fire.”
Appearing on the latest episode of Bill Maher’s popular Club Random podcast on Monday, June 29, the 66-year-old actor opened up about his nine-year absence from mainstream Hollywood.
Spacey, whose career ground to an abrupt halt in 2017 amid the height of the #MeToo movement, told Maher that he finally feels public perception and the entertainment industry are beginning to shift back in his favor.
“I feel less in jail than I did,” Spacey told Maher during the candid interview. “When people actually start to hear the facts, understand what we won in courts, I think people now look at this and think, 'Maybe nine years has been enough.' I believe we're at a point now where people are beginning to look at what actually happened, and I feel much more welcomed.”
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When pushed by Maher regarding the sheer volume of accusations brought against him over the past decade, Spacey offered a highly controversial analogy to describe the legal and public relations fallout.
“I never said there was no fire,” Spacey responded, maintaining his stance that his actions were overblown by the media. “It just wasn't a raging forest fire. It was a small kitchen fire that could have been put out with an extinguisher.”
He further qualified his past behavior by stating flatly, “I hit on a lot of guys.”
The path back to Hollywood
Spacey argued that the entertainment industry handles personal and legal controversies far more rigidly than other high-profile industries.
He compared his multi-year blacklisting from major film studios to how professional athletics treats disciplinary infractions.
“If I had been a sports figure, I would have been benched for seven games,” the House of Cards alum argued. “If you're hitting home runs, they want you on the field.”
The actor strongly emphasized his track record in the judicial system to support his belief that a Hollywood comeback is actively underway, noting that he and his legal team have ultimately prevailed before juries.
“We've been found not guilty in every court we've gone into with a jury,” Spacey pointed out.
The actor’s legal battles began in earnest after actor Anthony Rapp publicly accused Spacey of making an unwanted sexual advance toward him in 1986, when Rapp was just 14.
Rapp subsequently launched a high-profile $40 million civil lawsuit in New York, but a federal jury ultimately found Spacey not liable on all counts in 2022.
Additionally, a British criminal court acquitted Spacey of nine charges of sexual assault in July 2023, and a looming London High Court civil trial was successfully averted earlier this year after Spacey reached out-of-court settlements with three civil accusers.
Regrets over coming out
During the podcast, Spacey also expressed rare regret over the handling of his initial response to Rapp’s allegations in 2017.
At the time, Spacey issued a public statement apologizing for any inappropriate behavior while simultaneously choosing that exact moment to publicly come out as gay.
The decision drew severe, widespread condemnation from the public and members of the LGBTQ+ community, who accused the actor of using his sexuality as a public relations shield to deflect from allegations of predatory behavior.
Spacey admitted to Maher that his judgment at the time was clouded by a lifetime of hiding his private life.
“I was fiercely closeted,” Spacey reflected on the podcast. “I thought I was so clever that nobody knew, but, of course, kind of everybody knew. It was a terrible mistake to combine the two things.”
Topics: Celebrity, Kevin Spacey
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