Kevin Spacey leaves court in London after being found not guilty in July 2023 of charges of sexual assault against four men in the UK. Photo: AFP / NurPhoto / WIktor Szymanowicz
Actor Kevin Spacey has described himself as "being too handsy" in the past, in a new interview.
Speaking with Piers Morgan, the 64-year-old admitted to "pushing the boundaries" in reference to allegations of inappropriate behaviour that brought his career to a halt in 2017.
Last year, the actor was found not guilty of all charges of sexual assault against four men between 2001 and 2013 after a trial in London, and in 2022 a US court dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit against him.
Spacey is currently involved in a civil trial over an allegation, which he denies, that he sexually assaulted a man in 2008.
Spacey said his home in Baltimore, where he has lived since 2016, is being foreclosed and sold at auction because he cannot afford to pay the "many millions" he owes in legal bills.
The interview, broadcast on the Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube channel, featured a direct discussion of how Mr Spacey views his past behaviour.
When asked to clarify what he meant by "pushing the boundaries", the double Oscar winner said: "Being too handsy, touching someone sexually in a way that I didn't know at the time they didn't want."
Pressed on the potential for this being criminal conduct, Spacey said he has "been gentle with people" and he would not use the word "grope" to describe his actions.
"You want to be gentle. You want to see if they're going to respond positively," he added.
Morgan asked him: "Would you say all of that was consensual or was it an attempt at seduction, that if it was repelled, by definition becomes I guess non-consensual, that if you're being handsy, if you're groping people, and they don't want to do it …"
To which Spacey replied: "… then they should let you know they don't want to do it so that you can understand it's non-consensual and stop."
Asked if he could understand that a young actor might worry that someone with his influence could damage their career if they rejected his advances, Spacey said: "Yes".
The actor said that he is ready to "take accountability" for some of his past actions, which he describes as "bad, bad, bad behaviour".
But he also said that "a whole lot of people" have made false claims against him.
In May, Spacey denied fresh allegations against him which aired in the Channel 4 documentary Spacey Unmasked.
Actors Ruari Cannon and Danny De Lillo both alleged inappropriate behaviour by Mr Spacey in the documentary.
Cannon alleged that Spacey touched him inappropriately in public at a press night for an Old Vic theatre production in 2013. Spacey said the allegation was "ridiculous and it never happened".
De Lillo alleged the actor thrust his groin towards his face while he was seated at a production at the same theatre. Spacey said he found the accusation "completely offensive".
After the documentary was broadcast, a group of Hollywood stars including Sharon Stone, Stephen Fry and Liam Neeson called for Spacey to be allowed to return to acting.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Stone said: "I can't wait to see Kevin back at work. He is a genius."
Spacey won the Oscar for best actor for American Beauty in 2000, and for best supporting actor for The Usual Suspects in 1995.
He was also the artistic director at the Old Vic Theatre in London between 2004 and 2015.
In a statement, the Old Vic said it had conducted an investigation in 2017 into alleged inappropriate conduct by Mr Spacey at the theatre between 2005 and 2013. It said there were "no findings of fact" regarding the actor's alleged misconduct, and no evidence of formal complaints against him.
Spacey was sacked while filming the Netflix series House of Cards after the first allegations against him emerged in 2017.
His scenes from the then-upcoming Ridley Scott film All the Money in the World were erased and reshot with Canadian actor Christopher Plummer replacing him.
- BBC