LONDON (AP) β Kevin Spacey, the Oscar-winning actor, has denied new allegations of inappropriate behaviour from men who will feature in a documentary on British television that is due to be released next week.
In an online interview with journalist Dan Wootton, Spacey said he has never done anything illegal and admitted that he has struggled to get back to work after being acquitted last year of criminal charges in a London court.
βI canβt go through this again, allowing myself to be baselessly attacked without defending myself,” he said in the interview entitled βKevin Spacey: Right Of Replyβ which was aired late Friday on Woottonβs YouTube channel.
Last July, a London jury acquitted Spacey on sexual assault charges stemming from allegations by four men dating back 20 years. The court victory was his second since he saw off a $40 million lawsuit in 2022 in New York brought by βStar Trek: Discoveryβ actor Anthony Rapp.
The documentary βSpacey Unmaskedβ is set to be aired on May 6 and 7 on Channel 4 in Britain and streamed on Max in the U.S.
The documentary is said to feature testimony from men regarding events between 1976 and 2013, the actor revealed during the interview.
βI take full responsibility for my past behaviour and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologize to anyone whoβs made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me,β said Spacey, who won Academy Awards for βThe Usual Suspectsβ and βAmerican Beautyβ.
βIβve never told someone that if they give me sexual favors, then I will help them out with their career, never,” he added.
Spacey, who served as artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre in London from 2004 to 2015, again admitted that he was a βflirtβ with men in their 20s and that he made βclumsyβ passes at times.
βIβve clearly hooked up with some men, who thought they might get ahead in their careers by having a relationship with me,” he said. “But there was no conversation with me, it was all part of their plan, a plan that was always destined to fail, because I wasnβt in on the deal.β
The actor also claimed on X, formerly Twitter, that he had βrepeatedly requestedβ that Channel 4 give him more than seven days to respond to the allegations made about him in their documentary.
Spacey said the broadcaster refused βon the basis that they feel that asking for a response in 7 days to new, anonymized and non-specific allegations is a βfair opportunityβ for me to refute any allegations made against me.β
βEach time I have been given the time and a proper forum to defend myself, the allegations have failed under scrutiny and I have been exonerated,β he added.
Spacey said he has struggled to get back to work after being acquitted of all criminal charges, describing his experience as a βlife sentence.β
His acting career has been adversely affected since 2017 when he was first publicly accused of inappropriate behaviour at the beginning of the #MeToo movement. He then lost his lead role as Frank Underwood in the Netflix drama βHouse of Cardsβ.