Hollywood star Kevin Spacey has denied sexual assault allegations against American actor Anthony Rapp, whose civil trial began in New York.
“I don’t remember going to a private party with him or being in an apartment with him,” Spacey said in response to questions from his lawyer.
Spacey, who has won two Oscars, has lost the screen and the stage, having been one of the first artists to be touched by the global wave “Me Too” since its inception in 2017 in the United States.
Actor Anthony Rapp, 51, co-star of the “Star Trek: Discovery” series, filed a lawsuit against Spacey in September 2020, accusing him of sexually assaulting him at a party in New York in 1986 when he was still 14 years old.
In his lawsuit, Rapp explained that Spacey invited him to dinner with friends at his small apartment in Manhattan, and after the other guests left, he held him in his arms while he was watching TV and put him on. on a bed “before she lay down beside him and then on top of him”.
During Monday’s interrogation, Spacey described his father, in his early public speeches, as a “white supremacist” and a “neo-Nazi” who had no homosexuality or interest in theater.
Spacey said he was “shocked, scared and confused” after the 2017 allegations in an Anthony Rapp article on BuzzFeed News and that he asked for a public apology on the recommendation of his agents, which he regrets today.
“I’ve learned my lesson, which is that you should never apologize for something you didn’t do,” he said.
He added that he decided that day to declare his homosexuality, after thinking about it for more than a year, after having established himself professionally in the world of acting.
“I was accused of trying to change the subject, or divert attention, or confuse the accusation with being gay, which was never my intention,” he said, tearing himself apart, adding that he would never done “nothing that harm the gay community”.
Spacey faces other lawsuits in the US and Britain. In London he is on trial for sexual assaults against three men between March 2005 and April 2013 when he was the artistic director of a theater.
The star pleaded not guilty to the charges last July.