Kevin Spacey has doubled down on denying the assault allegations against him in a London courtroom with his return to the stand Friday, insisting his accuser is after money rather than justice.
In taking the stand again, the embattled Oscar winner, 63, told Southwark Crown Court that the complainant — who accused Spacey of grabbing his crotch after their introduction in the 2000s — “made up his entire story from beginning to end,” Deadline reports.
“I do not accept a single word that comes out of his mouth,” said the “American Beauty” star, claiming his accuser’s motivation to lie is “money, money and then money.”
The embattled “House of Cards” actor added that he thinks the man in question has “for whatever reason, anger towards me.”
Denying that a “crotch grab” is a “trademark” of his or whether it’s something he does upon a first meeting, Spacey also said: “Let me put it this way, it is the term ‘grabbing a crotch’ or ‘groping a crotch’ that I object to.”
While telling prosecutor Christina Agnew that such a gesture is “generally not a first move,” Spacey didn’t detail which “moves” he deemed appropriate.
“Every encounter that we have as humans, that I have had, is unique,” he said.
He also denied Agnew’s suggestion that “status and position” made it so people “did what [Spacey] wanted.”
“I found it harder to trust people because of who I was,” said the Tony winner.
When asked again whether his celebrity made it easier to pick up people, he added, “I am sure if I wanted to, I could have had sex all the time, but I didn’t.”
Spacey — who in January pleaded not guilty to the 12 charges against him, linked to four men — claimed he instead “used my power” only in terms of contributing to creative endeavors.
Spacey maintains the encounters with an accuser who drove him to a party in the early 2000s and another who claims the “Usual Suspects” star “drugged” and then performed a sex act on him were “consensual interactions.” He told the court he “definitely misread” the signs with the man who says Spacey grabbed him in the Cotswolds over a decade ago.
Among the charges Spacey pleaded not guilty to were those of indecent assault, sexual assault and other charges related to encounters that are alleged to have occurred between 2001 and 2013. At the time, Spacey was largely living in the U.K. serving as artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre.
