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One of Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey’s accusers was described in a London court on Monday as a “slippery, reckless” predator who good-looking young men were warned to avoid. The man, who worked with Spacey when he came to the Old Vic theater in the British capital in the early 2000s, said that the American actor offered to introduce him to Hollywood stars. But the man said the word around the playroom is that he should be careful around Spacey.
“It was well known that he wasn’t good,” the man said in a video of his police interview that was shown to the jury in Spacey’s sexual assault trial. “He was right almost from the start.”
The accused, who cannot be identified under British law, is one of four men the former House of Cards star has been accused of assaulting in the UK.
He said Spacey made him feel uncomfortable asking about his sexuality, then became “touchy” and developed into aggressive groping when they were alone together. He likened Spacey to the villain he played in the 1995 thriller Se7en about a serial killer motivated by the Seven Deadly Sins. “It’s a little bit like that, a little scary,” the man said in a police interview last year.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to twelve charges to events dating from 2001 to 2013. The charges include sexual assault, indecent assault and causing him to engage in penetrative sexual activity without his consent.
He could go to prison if convicted, though Spacey told a German magazine that he expected to be offered work “the moment I’m cleared of these charges”.
The trial, which is expected to last four weeks, continues Tuesday in front of a jury of nine men and three women at Southwark Crown Court.
One of the biggest actors of his generation, Spacey won an Academy Award for Supporting Actor in The Usual Suspects in 1995 and a Best Actor Oscar for American Beauty in 1999. He also has accolades for stage and the small screen.
His career dried up when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him as the #MeToo movement exploded. It was written from Netflix’s political thriller House of Cards, and was cut from the completed film All the Money in the World.
The actor, who has homes in the US and London, is free on bail. He was technical director at the Old Vic from 2003 until 2015.
The man who testified Monday said he reacted in horror when Spacey made physical contact for the first time by rubbing his neck early in their working relationship in the early 2000s.
“The first time he touched me was just a huge shock,” he said. “I just don’t like my people’s hands.” When he complained to a woman he worked for, she laughed and said, “You can handle it, you can handle it. We all know what it is,” he said. The man said he decided he “didn’t want to bother with the apple cart” and moved on.
But he said that when Spacey escalated to grabbing his crotch and took his hand to rub the actor’s pants, he began to fear Spacey’s return to London.
He described how Spacey leaned toward him while sitting next to him and allowed his hand to roam his leg and then his inner thigh. At that moment in the testimony, Spacey was leaning on his right elbow in a similar fashion as he was listening from the courtroom sidewalk.
Upon cross-examination, defense attorney Patrick Gibbs indicated that the man, who was disguised in court behind a curtain, was confused by his touch and even felt arousal from it. “Nothing happened between us. He was attacking me,” the man replied. “I was doing my job and he was the one touching me.”
Gibbs confronted the man with a photo he posted on social media six years ago that appeared to have his arm around Spacey’s back. “Does it make you sick to stand there side by side?” Gibbs asked. The man said he used the image to promote his work. “Anyone using social media would have killed for a picture like that,” he said.
The man said the final straw came on a day when he was driving Spacey to a star-studded summer party in 2004 or 2005. The star violently grabbed his crotch and almost ran out of the way, the man said. “He grabbed me so tight, and it really hurt,” he said. “I pushed him against the door and said, ‘Don’t do that again, or I’ll kick you out.'”
“This is a turnaround for me,” Spacey replied. “You are such a man.” However, Gibbs said Spacey had only attended this ceremony once – three or four years before the witness claimed.
The defense attorney also showed jurors a screenshot the man sent to Spacey to thank him for his support on a charity trip in the North American Rocky Mountains. The man also kept a warm letter Spacey wrote to him after donating 5,000 pounds ($6,350) for the trip.
Spacey told police when he was questioned that he considered the man a “clever” and “charming” friend and was baffled and deeply hurt by his allegations. He suggested the man reimagine their time together to make false claims because he was either too embarrassed to admit the truth or seeking financial gain.
When cross-examined, the man said he might have considered suing Spacey but that whatever prize money he might win in court “would not be enough.”
The man said he told few people in his life about his experience with Spacey, fearing it would affect his career. He said he decided to come forward last year after Spacey was accused of assaulting the three other alleged victims in the case. “That’s a big part of it,” said the man. “The strength is in numbers, right?”
“Or is it in the year 2022, you see a bandwagon coming, and you decide to jump on board?” Gibbs asked. The man said, “It’s not true at all.”
He said he never got over the shame he felt from his encounters with Spacey and could not watch the actor’s movies or TV shows. “I can’t bear to watch the guy. It makes me sick,” he said.
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