Kevin Spacey defended himself on the stand in his London sex-crimes criminal trial on Thursday, July 13 — and claimed that he was the victim of an “intimate†ex-friend. “I never thought that [the man] I knew would … 20 years later stab me in the back,†Spacey said in his bombshell testimony. The fallen American Beauty star faces 12 counts in the U.K. relating to four accusers. It’s Spacey’s second sexual-misconduct trial in less than one year; he was cleared in a New York civil proceeding in October 2022.
Spacey’s woe-is-me statement was in relation to an accuser who claimed that he repeatedly endured unwanted sexual touching on his inner thigh, crotch, and buttocks. This accuser testified last week that Spacey’s unwanted advances came to a crux when he was driving the then–Old Vic Theatre director to Elton John’s house for a party, per the Associated Press. The man alleged that Spacey grabbed his crotch so powerfully that he almost veered off the roadway. “That never happened,†Spacey told the court. “I was not on a suicide mission in any of those years.â€
Spacey described his accuser in virtually glowing terms, per the AP’s reporting, and said he probably initiated physical contact with him. “I’m a big flirt,†Spacey testified. Over time, they started touching each other, but Spacey stopped when the man indicated he wasn’t interested. “He said things like, ‘This is new for me,’ so I think he may have been surprised by his reaction,†Spacey claimed. “The only thing he made clear was he didn’t want to go further than we were going, and I respected that.â€
Spacey, who also claims he keeps copious work and scheduling records, did appear to undermine his accuser’s claim that this encounter was in 2004 or 2005. Spacey showed the court itineraries that indicated he was out of the country at the time of Elton John’s parties those years.
He also testified about the man who claimed Spacey performed oral sex on him without consent. The man claimed that Spacey invited him to his apartment, where they ate pizza and smoked pot, CBS News said of the man’s testimony. This accuser said he fell asleep and woke to Spacey engaging in oral sex on him. After telling him “no,†the man claimed Spacey “stopped and asked me to leave straight away. He said I shouldn’t talk to anyone about what had happened.â€
Spacey said he didn’t remember the man when this accusation surfaced in 2019. “My initial thought was, This is somebody who is just shaking me down, and I didn’t recognize the picture [of him],†Spacey reportedly said. After Spacey heard the accuser’s statements to police, he then remembered there had been a man who “hurriedly†left his apartment after some sort of interaction.
“It felt very odd, like maybe he was making an excuse, and it concerned me, and my memory is that I called this person to see if they were okay,†Spacey recalled. “That was the memory that I have.†Spacey thought that they performed consensual oral sex, per CBS’s reporting of his testimony. Spacey’s trial, which started on June 28, is expected to last one month.