Kevin Spacey, the 66-year-old two-time Oscar winner, has expressed a belief that he is now “much more welcomed” in Hollywood, almost nine years after multiple sexual assault allegations led to his professional ostracisation. Speaking on Bill Maher’s ‘Club Random’ podcast, Spacey responded to the host’s query about whether he remained in “show business jail” by stating he felt “less in jail than I did.”
Spacey’s career faced a significant downturn in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp accused him of sexual abuse in 1986. Rapp’s allegations, which Spacey consistently denied, were followed by more than a dozen similar accusations from other men. Spacey has either denied these claims or insisted they were consensual. During the podcast, Maher directly addressed the volume of allegations, telling Spacey, “There’s too much smoke to be no fire.”
The actor countered Maher’s point, stating, “I never said there was no fire. It just wasn’t a raging forest fire. It was a small kitchen fire that could have been put out with an extinguisher.” Spacey highlighted his legal victories, noting, “We’ve been found not guilty in every court we’ve gone into with a jury.” He specifically referenced the case involving Anthony Rapp, which was dismissed by a Manhattan court in 2022. Furthermore, in 2023, Spacey was cleared of all nine sexual assault charges following a trial in the UK, where four men had made allegations spanning from 2001 to 2013.
Despite Maher admitting he hadn't fully researched all the allegations, he continued to press Spacey on the sheer number of accusations. Spacey, who publicly came out as gay after Rapp’s allegations surfaced, conceded, “I hit on a lot of guys.” He elaborated on his past, stating, “Over the years that I have been an actor, I was very, very closeted. I was fiercely closeted… I thought I was so clever that nobody knew, but of course kind of everybody knew.”
Following his acquittals, Spacey has begun to re-engage with his acting career, taking on roles in smaller productions such as the 2024 thriller ‘The Contract’. Earlier this year, he received the Maximo Award for Excellence at the Italian Global Series Festival, suggesting a slow but steady return to public recognition within the industry. Spacey expressed optimism about his future, remarking, “I believe we’re at a point now where people are starting to look at what actually happened, and I feel much more welcomed, and I think that things are moving in the direction that we hoped they were moving in.”