Actor Kevin Spacey has been cast in his first film role after sexual abuse allegations against the two-time Oscar winner surfaced in 2017.
Spacey is set to appear in the Italian film L’uomo Che Disegno Dio, or The Man Who Drew God, in a small cameo role as a police detective. Director Franco Nero will star as the lead, while his wife Vanessa Redgrave will appear in a small role as a piano teacher if she is able to travel from England to Italy.
Nero is best known for his acting roles in films such as Die Hard 2, Django Unchained and John Wick: Chapter 2, but made his directorial debut in 2005 for the feature film Forever Blues.
This casting marks the actor’s first screen performance since 2018’s Billionaire Boys Club, which made a meager $2.7 million at the box office.
“I’m very happy Kevin agreed to participate in my film,” Franco Nero told ABC News. “I consider him a great actor and I can’t wait to start the movie.”
Kevin Spacey himself has yet to make a comment.
Kevin Spacey sexual assault allegations
In 2017, Spacey was fired from his role as ruthless politician Frank Underwood in Netflix’s House of Cards, when allegations first began.
In October 2017, Broadway veteran and Star Trek: Discovery star Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of physically assaulting him in 1986 when he was 14. The incident was since described by both as a “sexual advance”.
Spacey later responded in a statement on Twitter, where he apologized for “what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior”.
Since then, over 30 more people have come forward with their own allegations against the American Beauty actor, from harassment to attempted rape.
On November 16, 2017, London’s Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey acted as artistic director from 2004 to 2016, launched an anonymous hotline to allow staff members and actors to speak out in light of the allegations.
Over 20 complaints about Spacey had been received, concerning “a range of inappropriate behaviour” toward young men between 1995 and 2013.
In 2018, Spacey was charged with indecent assault against a teenager on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, in 2016. He pleaded not guilty, and charges were later dropped when the alleged victim withdrew.
Spacey was additionally accused of two separate sexual assault cases in Los Angeles. However, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office did not file charges.
In one case, the statute of limitations had run out, and the second alleged victim died, causing the lawsuit to be dismissed.
An anonymous man in New York also alleged Spacey abused him in the 1980’s when he was 14, however a judge ruled that the accuser could not proceed anonymously.
Where is Kevin Spacey now?
Following Spacey’s fall from Hollywood grace, the actor has since been attempting to win back fans through video monologues on YouTube where he channels the character of Frank Underwood from House of Cards.
A video he uploaded to the platform in 2018 titled Let Me Be Frank, topped 8 million views in 3 days.
In 2019, Spacey made a puzzling appearance in Rome, as he surprised museum-goers with a public poetry reading of The Boxer, the story of a dejected fighter bemoaning his fate while bleeding out by the ringside.
There are currently no major movies or TV series on the horizon for Spacey.