Kevin Spacey says 'shocked' when Rapp's sexual abuse claim became public

NEW YORK - Kevin Spacey said at his civil trial on Monday (Oct 17) that he was “shocked” when actor Anthony Rapp went public with an allegation that the Oscar-winning star made an unwanted sexual advance in 1986 when Rapp was 14.

Rapp, now 50, testified earlier this month that an intoxicated Spacey - then 26 and acting on Broadway - climbed on top of him at a party at his Manhattan apartment. Rapp, at the start of his own Broadway career at the time, said he was able to “swerve my way out” but that the experience scarred him.

Spacey said on the stand on Monday that the allegation was “not true,” and that he had never been alone with Rapp. He testified that Rapp visited his apartment only once, in 1986, with actor John Barrowman.

Spacey said he was “shocked” when Rapp went public with his allegations in an article in Buzzfeed in 2017.

“I didn’t know how this could possibly be true,” Spacey testified, saying he would not have been sexually interested in Rapp or anyone who was underage.

Spacey’s attorney asked him about Rapp’s suggestion during the trial that Spacey was a “fraud” for not coming out as homosexual sooner.

“To call someone a fraud is to, I guess, say that you think they are living a lie,” the 63-year-old said. “I wasn’t living a lie. I was just reluctant to talk about my personal life,” Spacey said.

Spacey said on the stand that he had been private about his personal life, including his childhood, because his father had held racist and homophobic views.

His father was opposed to the idea of Spacey being gay and yelled at him using an anti-gay slur, he testified.

Spacey’s father died in 1992.

Rapp, who starred in the Broadway musical Rent, sued Spacey in November 2020, seeking US$40 million (S$57 million) in damages for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday dismissed Rapp’s emotional distress claim, stating that the claim repeated his allegations of battery against Spacey. Kaplan allowed the battery claim to stand.

Last week, Spacey’s lawyer challenged Rapp’s memory of the 1986 incident during cross-examination, questioning him on why he described the encounter of having occurred in a bedroom when Spacey lived in a studio at the time.

Spacey won Oscars for performances in American Beauty and The Usual Suspects, but his career largely ended after more than 20 men accused him of sexual misconduct.

Netflix dropped him from its political drama series House Of Cards and Christopher Plummer replaced him in the role of J. Paul Getty in All The Money In The World weeks before the movie’s scheduled release in 2017.