In the wake of multiple sexual-assault accusations and allegations of workplace sexual harassment, colleagues of Kevin Spacey can’t be blamed for looking back at their professional interactions with the actor with a new air of scrutiny. Spacey’s former co-star Gabriel Byrne certainly has, and, in hindsight, the actor’s rumored pattern of behavior seems painfully obvious. So obvious, in fact, that according to Byrne, production was allegedly stopped for two days on the 1995 crime thriller The Usual Suspects due to Spacey being “accused of sexually inappropriate behavior toward a younger actor.â€
“I did not know honestly then the extent of his violence,†the Vikings actor told The Sunday Times this weekend. “I mean, he was kind of a joke in that people would say, ‘That’s Kevin,’ but nobody really understood the depth of his predations.†Byrne claims that it was some time before he and his co-workers discovered the alleged reason behind the brief hiatus. “It was only years later that we began to understand that [filming] was closed down for a particular reason and that was because of inappropriate sexual behavior by Spacey,†he says. Spacey would eventually go on to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the film, which was directed by Bryan Singer.
Byrne also recalls hearing “vague rumors†about Harvey Weinstein, though he failed to comprehend the gravity of the gossip at the time. “I heard that once or twice from two very well-known actresses, but the problem when you hear something like that is, do you pass that on?†Byrne added, “Because if it’s not true, it’s awful, and if it is true, it’s not your job to say, ‘Well, I wasn’t there, the door was locked, I don’t know what happened, I just heard the story.’ But I did not know, and many people didn’t know, the extent of the violence that he perpetrated on women.â€