Keep Kevin Spacey canceled

In light of a local kerfuffle last week, a recent acquittal does not mean the disgraced actor can or should resume his career as if nothing happened.

Starting around the time of the Harvey Weinstein scandal in 2017, accusations began to emerge against prominent men accused of sexual misconduct, and that ended many careers. But once that started to happen, it took about five minutes for a backlash to emerge. 

If it wasn’t “#MeToo has gone too far,” there was its more moderate cousin, “for men accused of such things, what does the path back to their former career look like?”

The answer, it’s turned out, has been, “it depends.” 

What was the person accused of? Did it involve victims under the age of consent? How many people accused him? How solid was the evidence? Was he ever convicted of a crime? If he did something wrong, did he show remorse at any point? 

Harvey Weinstein went to prison on multiple rape convictions while also serving as the primary face of the entire cultural episode, so no, don’t expect him to ever re-emerge as a Hollywood producer. Bill Cosby was convicted of aggravated indecent assault, served a couple of years, and then had his conviction tossed. Still, he’s 86 years old and almost certainly a permanent pariah, mostly because he’s been accused of horrible acts by more than 60 women. The recent travails of Woody Allen could be their own 6,000-word essay. 

Yet, at the same time, Louis C.K. essentially took a year off and then resumed his career as an A-list stand-up comedian, albeit one who no longer gets to create or star in TV shows and movies that get Hollywood distribution. Jeffrey Ross — accused of a relationship with an underaged girl — popped up in the recent movie Ricky Stanicky. It would appear that, for all the talk of how “cancel culture is ruining comedy,” the comedy world is much more accepting of #MeToo offenders than just about any other sector of society. With the exception, of course, of the MAGA movement.

And then there’s Kevin Spacey, a two-time Oscar-winning actor who has appeared in such significant films as The Usual Suspects, Seven, and American Beauty. 

In 2017, actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey had made an advance toward him in 1986 when Rapp was 14 years old, and Spacey was 26; Rapp had made similar accusations in an interview many years earlier without using Spacey’s name. Spacey issued a statement at the time stating that while he didn’t remember the incident, he apologized to Rapp for “deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” Spacey also took that opportunity to state, after years of speculation and denials, that “I choose now to live as a gay man.” 

In the weeks and months afterward, many more accusations surfaced against Spacey from individuals and multiple people, each from those who worked with him in the Old Vic theater and on the Netflix show House of Cards. Spacey was fired from that show, which proceeded for a final season without him. And famously, he was completely removed from a finished film,  All the Money in the World, with Christopher Plummer taking his place. A planned biopic of Gore Vidal, starring Spacey, was also kiboshed. 

In the seven years since, Spacey’s acting career has gone into eclipse, with his name most often in the news because of legal proceedings and those bizarre “Let Me Be Frank” videos that Spacey has occasionally released on Christmas Eve. 

The actor has managed to beat the charges in court, including in a civil case brought by Rapp and a criminal case in the U.K. But overall, Spacey has been accused by more than 30 men (and at least one woman) of sexual misconduct. And conviction or no conviction, that’s an indication that, unless there’s a massive conspiracy among all these people who don’t know one another, there’s something there. (It’s also worth noting that three different Spacey accusers have passed away.)

If Spacey had one accuser who accused him of one crime, and the legal case fell apart, that would be one thing. But there’s very clearly a pattern of alleged behavior here, one robust enough that I’m perfectly fine with Spacey continuing to face career consequences. 

Now, nearly seven years after his downfall, Spacey is attempting a comeback. He recently appeared at a fan convention in North Carolina, where he presumably received a more positive reception than Brie Larson or Rachel Zegler would have. Then, he brought his “Let Me Be Frank” schtick to Tucker Carlson’s streaming show. Ironically, for all the conspiracy-mongering Tucker likes to do about gay Hollywood pedophiles, here he was, hosting one of the few real ones (allegedly.) 

And then, last week, an Instagram post surfaced from a company called Invincible Entertainment, stating that an “official premier” [sic] would be taking place, at Philadelphia Film Center right in Philadelphia, of Peter Five Eight, an indie movie starring Spacey, Jet Jandreau and Rebecca De Mornay. This “premier” would feature Spacey himself in attendance, as well as a “VIP reception.” 

This led to a couple of days of serious head-scratching among local film people. Why would the Philadelphia Film Society, which runs the Film Center, agree to this? Why hold this premiere in Philadelphia when the film has no apparent ties to the city? 

Why would this film, which looks in absolutely every way like direct-to-VOD drek, even get a big screen premiere at all? The poster, featuring Spacey pointing a gun while sporting an extremely unfortunate hairpiece, makes it resemble the sort of movie I get press releases about every week, often leading me to conclude, “Wow, that actor has surely fallen far if they’re in something like this.” 

Within 24 hours, the Film Society (to their credit) canceled the screening, stating that the screening was a “private rental” and that they didn’t know it would be promoted publicly. PFS had never listed the film on their schedule or sent marketing emails about it.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Rosa Cartagena reported further on what happened: 

The rental request came from Montgomery County-based distribution company Invincible Entertainment, run by Art Institute of Philadelphia alum Tom Ashley, which is releasing Peter Five Eight. The film, an indie thriller where Spacey plays an assassin, is being released in a limited theatrical run before it releases online. Ashley said the advertising was not meant to insinuate the society’s involvement and he understood why PFS canceled.

“They made a decision that they think is best for their image,” said Ashley. “From what I understand, they got some negative feedback and decided it wasn’t something they wanted to pursue, and that’s certainly their prerogative.”

Ashley also saw it fit to defend Spacey’s, I guess, right to appear at a public movie premiere: 

  “It’s been proven multiple times in court — and this is one of the reasons why we agreed to pick up the film — that he was found not guilty of these charges,” he said. “I would like to think that the court systems in the United Kingdom are sufficient in pursuing these things and getting to the truth. It’s enough to say, ‘Okay, let’s give him another shot.’”

He added that the movie will be shown on the 21st at another venue in Philadelphia, with Spacey there. 

This whole episode has made another thing clear: Spacey, much like Johnny Depp, Trevor Bauer, and (especially) Michael Jackson, seems to have a weird, possibly bot-driven army of online Stans, always eager to jump into discussions uninvited and declare their man the victim of a massive frame-up or conspiracy (while also declaring him the world’s greatest artist).

So we get unhinged stuff like this: 

And this: 

No, there is no constitutional right or human rights imperative for an actor to have the movie premiere for their direct-to-VOD release not get canceled. And no, Kevin Spacey has not been “proven innocent” of all the accusations against him; only a tiny fraction have even reached the courts.

I expect Kevin Spacey to spend his remaining days on the fringes of the movie industry. Not entirely out of the picture like Cosby or Weinstein, but more on the Woody Allen trajectory, making movies in Europe without significant talent around him. He won’t appear in Hollywood movies, get nominated for Oscars, or appear for movie premieres at downtown venues in major cities.

And honestly, that’s how it should be. Kevin Spacey is not, in any way, a #MeToo edge case. Both in terms of the severity of what he was accused of and the number of people who accused him — who I don’t believe could possibly all be lying — he’s among the worst of them. If the Anthony Rapp story is true — and I believe there’s plenty of reason to believe it is — that should be career-ending all by itself, and it’s not a close call.

If Spacey is guilty of even a fraction of what he’s been accused of, a career twilight of direct-to-VOD appearances means he got off pretty easy.