Kevin Spacey broke down in tears in the witness box as he described to a court how his “world exploded” when he was first accused of sexual assault.
The double Oscar-winner said work dried up, his reputation was tarnished, and he faced a slew of allegations after being accused of the sexual assault in New York in 1986.
Asked about the impact of the original allegation, Spacey said: “My world exploded.”
He told the court: “There was a rush to judgement and before the first question was asked or answered, I lost my job.
“I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days.”
Spacey told jurors film projects and sponsorship deals were “abandoned” - “With a few exceptions over the last five or six years, I have not been able to work.
“There are some courageous and very kind filmmakers and producers who, even in the face of accusations, wanted to work with me and offered me to come and work with them, and I was very glad to do so.”
Spacey said his original accuser, Anthony Rapp, sued him for $40m but a jury cleared him in a trial last October following a civil trial in New York.
“The jury came back in 45 minutes and I was a unanimous jury that I had never abused Anthony Rapp”, he said. “I’m not sure many people know we were successful and prevailed in that case because it kind of wasn’t covered with the same enthusiasm that the original allegation was covered with.”
The star said another criminal case was brought against him in Massachusetts but was dropped before reaching a trial.
He battled to control his emotions while describing the impact of sexual misconduct allegations on his life in the last six years, saying he is “no longer a rich man” thanks to mounting legal bills.
He broke down when discussing a statement he issued when the original Anthony Rapp story emerged in 2017, denying the allegation and controversially also revealing for the first time that he is gay.
“Members of the LGBTQ+ community were upset because I came out while responding to an accusations”, he said.
“I understand why it was read that way, but I didn’t put those two things together.”
Spacey said members of the gay community had long been “pressuring” him to come out, and he had been contemplating it for two years before the 2017 statement.
“Maybe, now that the allegation against me by Anthony Rapp has been proved to be false, maybe people will read that statement with a little bit more understanding now”, he said.
Spacey wiped away tears as he went on to tell the court that he had never expected to be charged in the UK.
Earlier, the Hollywood star, 63, was “crushed” when accused of sexual assault by a man he considered a friend, saying the allegations felt like being “stabbed in the back”.
Spacey said one of the claims he faces, that he hurled abuse at a man before sexually assaulting him at a West End theatre, was “madness”.
He said he believes another alleged victim may have come to regret a consensual sexual encounter, which he described as “lovely”.
One of his accusers says Spacey repeatedly touched his leg and grabbed his crotch as they drove around together, including an alleged incident when he almost crashed the car out of shock.
Asked how he felt about the accusations when they were made last year, Spacey told the court: “I was crushed.
“I never thought that (the man) I knew would …stab me in the back.”
In his evidence last week, the man said he was “disgusted” by Spacey touching him and often told the Hollywood star to stop touching him.
However Spacey told the court on Thursday that they had “enjoyed each other’s company”,
“We drove around together”, he said. “He was a lad’s lad, he was funny, and charming, and flirtatious.
“Over time, slowly - I’m assuming it was me - I began to touch him in more romantic ways, intimate ways.”
Spacey called himself a “big flirt”, and said his relationship with the man “over time became somewhat sexual”.
“We never had sex together because he made it clear he didn’t want to go any farther.
“That happens at times, and you respect how far someone wants to go and does not want to go.”
Spacey said they had a “jovial” time together, and told the court he touched the man’s leg and crotch as well as guiding his hand over to his crotch.
“It didn’t happen in a violent, aggressive, painful way. It was gentle, it was touching, and it was in my mind romantic.
“It don’t think in his mind he wanted things to seem romantic but it was not what he described.”
Spacey said the man’s initial reaction was “this is new to me”, and he had “taken the lead”.
The actor is accused of making a string of crude and sexually charged comments to a man when he attended an event at a West End theatre.
“I never said any of those things he claimed I said to him, and wouldn’t, and never have, to anyone in my life”, said Spacey, adding: “It’s madness. It never happened.”
He went on to deny claims he had turned up to the event looking “dishevelled” and apparently drunk.
“I wouldn’t do anything to embarrass myself in such a way”, he said.
Another man claims Spacey performed a sex act on him when he fell asleep at the star’s apartment, and suggested he may have been drugged.
Spacey said he denied the encounter ever took place when questioned by police, after a mix-up with the dates and him not remembering meeting the man.
“My initial reaction was this was someone shaking me down”, he said. “I’ve faced this before.”
Spacey said it is “not true” that he drugged the man or performed a sex act on him as he slept.
“If I’m interested in someone, the first thing I want them to feel is comfortable”, he said. “The idea of barking orders, you can’t go to the balcony...I would never be behaving the way he has claimed, it makes no logical sense.
“I remember an encounter I had with someone in my flat. After we had a sexual encounter in which I had gone to the bathroom, I came back from the bathroom and it was like something had changed.
“The person I had this intimate moment with was suddenly awkward and fumbling, saying ‘I have to go, have to catch the last bus or last train’.
“I don’t want to say running out of my apartment, but he hurriedly left. It felt very odd.
“It felt like maybe he was making an excuse, and it concerned me. I called this person to make sure they were OK, to find out if they got their bus. They were OK, we continued to know each other, seeing each other for a period of time.”
Asked for his memory of the encounter now, Spacey said: “We had a consensual and I believe a very nice and lovely evening, and then if he regretted it immediately I don’t know. I can’t speak for him.”
Opening his evidence, Spacey described his love for London theatre as he took to the witness stand for the first time in his sexual assault trial.
He faces allegations that he sexually assaulted four different men between 2001 and 2013, and has said through his barrister that he has been wrongly accused thanks to “half-truths”, “exaggeration”, and “damned lies”.
Spacey said he agreed to join the Old Vic theatre as artistic director in 2003 when it had fallen into disrepair and efforts were made to revitalise it.
“The Old Vic has a remarkable history”, he said. “John Gielgud made his debut on the Old Vic stage.”
He said when efforts were being made to revitalise the theatre, he “was crazy enough at some point to throw my hat into the ring as a possible candidate.”
He told jurors he appeared at the Old Vic in a production of the Ice Man Cometh as a young actor, and said: “There’s something quite unique about the Old Vic – with its design, its round shape, when you stand in the centre of that stage, Laurence Olivier used to say I was the perfect spot.”
Spacey began his evidence by detailing his education and first entry into acting, performing Shakespeare in the park in New York in a production of Henry IV Part 1.
He said he went to acting school alongside Val Kilmer, and at 26 years old, he broke into films. Asked about his big breakthrough in acting, he said: “That happened in 1992 when I did a film with a great number of great actors called Glengarry Glen Ross.”
Asked by his barrister Patrick Gibbs KC about when he began acting, Spacey joked: “My mother would say when I came out.”
He also told the jury about playing the son of Jack Lemmon on stage in London at the Haymarket theatre.
Spacey, who has been accused of being a “sexual bully” and a “predator”, won Oscars for his turns in American Beauty and The Usual Suspects, and became the artistic director of the Old Vic in London in 2003.
He was starring in the Netflix show House of Cards in 2017 when his career came to a shuddering halt thanks to sexual misconduct allegations.
A man who met Spacey in a pub alleges the Hollywood star sexually assaulted him at a rental home in the Cotswolds.
He claimed the star said “be cool, be cool” while grabbing his crotch and kissing his neck, and had a “panicked” look on his face when he was pushed away.
In his evidence, Spacey accepted most of the description of the incident, but characterised it as a “clumsy pass”.
“I’m only happy he testified the moment he told me he was not interested, I stopped”, he said, adding that he tried to apologise to the man the following day for “misreading the signals”.
In his opening speech to jurors, Mr Gibbs said the accusers had put a “sinister spin” on innocent events, and argued the case was built on truths, half-truths, “deliberate exaggerations” and “damned lies”.
In the course of his evidence, Spacey revealed that he signed off letter as ‘Bobby D’ after playing Bobby Darin in 2003 film Beyond the Sea, which included filming in London.
He said he was given a rental phone while working on the film and still uses it 20 years later: “I’m clearly the dumbest man in England because I’m still renting my phone”, he said, letting out a laugh.
Spacey also discussed his friendship with Dame Judi Dench and bonding over ping pong when they filmed The Shipping News in Nova Scotia.
“Her husband had just passed away and we all thought she was going to drop out of the film”, he said.
“She decided to carry on and I made it my mission in that experience to try and make Judi laugh as much as I could. We developed a lovely friendship.
“We were staying in a very remote place when we were shooting the movie.
“There wasn’t a whole lot to do. I love ping pong, we had a ping pong table one of the floors in the place we were living in.
“Judi had never really played ping pong, and I taught her how to play ping pong. That’s what we did on certain nights.
“Later on, I decided to get her a ping pong table as a gift.”
Spacey has pleaded not guilty to four counts of indecent assault, seven counts of sexual assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
The trial continues.
