Kevin Spacey claimed his Hollywood career is on the mend, telling Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast on Monday that he feels “much more welcome” in the industry after years of freezing following dozens of sexual misconduct allegations.
“I feel much more welcome and I think things are moving in the direction we hoped to go,” said the House of Cards actor, 66, said.
He emphasized that his legal record was central to his argument.
“I never said there wasn’t a fire. It just wasn’t a raging forest fire. It was a small kitchen fire that could have been put out with a fire extinguisher,” he told Maher, also acknowledging that “I hit on a lot of guys.”
Maher, 70, was not entirely on his side.
The comedian clearly told Spacey that he believed some of the allegations against him were valid, saying there was “too much smoke for there not to be a fire” given the volume of the allegations.
He suggested that Spacey “should have been punished” while acknowledging that the actor had “paid a lot.”
Spacey’s response was to suggest that the ledger was now settled.
“I feel less in prison than I did before. When people actually start to hear the facts, to understand what we won in court, I think people now look at this and think maybe nine years will have been enough.”
He also offered a sports analogy: “If I had been a sports figure, I would have been on the bench for seven games. If you hit home runs, they want you on the field.”
Allegations against Spacey began to emerge in late 2017, when actor Anthony Rapp claimed that Spacey made an unwanted sexual advance toward him when Rapp was 14.
Rapp filed a $40 million civil suit, but a federal jury found Spacey not responsible on all counts in October 2022.
In 2023, a London jury found him not guilty of nine charges of sexual offenses relating to allegations stretching from 2001 to 2013.
In March of this year, Spacey settled out of court with three men who alleged sexual assault between 2000 and 2013. He has always denied all allegations.
At the height of the accusations, Spacey was fired from Netflix’s House of Cards and replaced in Ridley Scott’s role. All the money in the world.
Whether Hollywood is really ready to welcome him back remains to be seen – but Spacey, at least, seems to believe the tide is turning.
