Nearly four years ago, when several allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Kevin Spacey, the Oscar winner retreated from public life in search of “evaluation and treatment.” Since the fall of 2017, he’s been dropped by his talent agency and publicist, written out of House of Cards’ final season, and replaced by Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World. Most significantly, after actor Anthony Rapp first accused Spacey of making a sexual advance toward him when he was 14, several other accusers made similar claims against the actor. (Spacey, who was 26 at the time of the alleged incident, apologized in a 2017 statement, but claimed he did “not remember” it. “But if I did behave then as he describes,” his statement continued, “I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”) Now, The Hollywood Reporter has an update on Spacey’s life and plans for a potential comeback.
According to the new report, it appears that Spacey is still stuck in Hollywood purgatory following multiple accusations of sexual assault, some of which are still in various stages of litigation. In the years since his fall from grace, the 61-year-old has been known to exhibit strange behavior, which included performing “a song-and-dance number” during a February 2020 deposition, per THR. Before that, there was a fall 2019 spotting in Spain, where the actor could be seen performing alongside a street band. Then there’s Spacey’s bizarre annual Christmas videos, which show him mimicking the voice and direct-to-camera address of his House of Cards character, Frank Underwood.
But beyond the confines of his YouTube channel, Spacey hasn’t done any oncamera work since his sexual assault scandal. What appears to be the two-time Oscar winner’s last movie, Billionaire Boys Club, made a paltry $126 on its opening night in August 2018, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Perhaps the only notable filmmaker to express interest in casting Spacey was writer-director Paul Schrader (First Reformed), who later deleted a 2018 Facebook post that detailed his thoughts.
These days, Spacey is reportedly residing with his manager Evan Lowenstein, a former member of the boy band Evan and Jaron, per a THR source. As for where he’s living, that’s up for debate. One source told the outlet that he’d been holed up in London near the Old Vic theater he used to run. Others claimed he was living in Florida or Los Angeles after palm trees were seen in the background of his latest Christmas message. Wherever he is, Spacey is apparently enjoying his ability to disappear beneath a face mask during the pandemic, said a THR source still in contact with Spacey. He’s still providing funds for an art and antiques shop near Boston and even has aspirations to write a book under a pseudonym, according to THR’s sources.
But while Spacey may be contemplating plans for a tentative future, his alleged victims are frozen in court filings. They range from an anonymous accuser and former student of Spacey’s in Westchester County, to six separate accusers in London with incidents involving the actor between 1996 and 2013. (Spacey has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.) According to a Hollywood Reporter legal source, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service is deliberating whether to criminally charge Spacey. Three of Spacey’s other alleged victims coincidentally died within a 10-month time period in 2019, THR noted. “There comes a tipping point where the number of allegations in the number of jurisdictions reaches a critical mass,” Greenberg Glusker partner and former federal prosecutor Priya Sopori, who isn’t involved in any Spacey litigation, told THR. “There are certain cases that have reached that tipping point, and Bill Cosby and Kevin Spacey are two examples.”
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