Back in October 2017, around the time that the #MeToo movement began, Anthony Rapp accused Kevin Spacey of making sexual advances on him back in 1986, when Rapp was just 14 years old and Spacey was 26 years old. This opened up a wave of other sexual abuse allegations against the House of Cards actor, and cut to the end of May 2022, Spacey was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault in the United Kingdom. Additionally, Rapp filed a $40 million civil lawsuit against Spacey, and while testifying, the Star Trek: Discovery actor was asked about Spacey’s seduction scene from American Beauty.
In case you’ve never seen the 1999 movie that Sam Mendes directed, it saw Kevin Spacey playing a father who becomes romantically obsessed with one of his teenage daughter’s friends. While appearing on the stand in New York City on Tuesday, Anthony Rapp recalled how watching Spacey’s character longing for Angela Hayes’ Jane Burnham felt “unpleasantly familiar.” American Beauty went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Spacey netting Best Actor, but it ended up being the last of Spacey’s movies that Rapp watched. When Jennifer Keller, one of Spacey’s attorneys, brought up the accolades Spacey collected for this work on American Beauty, Rapp responded (via Variety):
It was hard for me at that point to judge his performance. I know that he gave an acclaimed performance in that movie.
Anthony Rapp also said during his testimony that despite his experience with Kevin Spacey in 1986, he continued to watch the actor’s movies because “they were by and large very acclaimed” and he “felt it was my duty to do so.” The two men would cross paths with each other on several occasions in professional settings, including in 1993, when they were both working on projects in the same building, and in 1999, when they both attended the Tony Awards. There was also a benefit in 2013 or 2014 when Rapp watched Spacey walk up to the podium, which made Rapp feel like he was “sort of in the spotlight,” though he didn’t leave the event because he feared he’d make a “scene.”
During the courtroom proceedings, Kevin Spacey’s attorneys accused Anthony Rapp of manufacturing the allegations against Spacey because his decision to come out of the closet ended up negatively impacting his career. Rapp countered that he never blamed being openly gay with any “dry period” in his professional life, and that he’d talked with people about what had happened between him and Spacey when he was “working very, very steadily.”
There’s still a ways to go until this lawsuit Anthony Rapp filed against Kevin Spacey is resolved one way or another, but as mentioned earlier, Spacey is also dealing with the charges against him in the U.K. On that front, Spacey responded days after the initial announcement that he was “confident” he’d be able to prove his innocence, and this was followed in June by him being granted unconditional bail by the Southwark Crown Court, allowing him to travel to and from the U.S. freely. As far as Spacey’s professional endeavors go, executives from Vantage Media International tried to find a buyer for Spacey’s new movie Peter Five Eight at the last Cannes Film Festival, and the actor is also starring in Gateway to the West.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on what’s happening with Kevin Spacey’s legal battles. If you’d like to see Anthony Rapp’s performance as Paul Stamets on Star Trek: Discovery, the show can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription.