Kevin Spacey (right) says Guy Pearce (left) is ‘not a victim’ after the latter says he was ‘targeted’ by Spacey. Photos: TNS
Kevin Spacey is slamming Guy Pearce after the latter claimed he was allegedly a victim of Spacey’s sexual harassment as the two filmed 1997’s L.A. Confidential.
During a recent appearance on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Pearce says he spent “five months” dismissing Spacey’s alleged advances as “nothing,” but now realises he was “targeted … no question.”
“I was sort of scared of Kevin because he’s quite an aggressive man,” said the Oscar-nominated Brutalist star, now 57. “He holds a room remarkably. But I was young and susceptible.”
Though Pearce contends he “probably was a victim to a degree,” he was hesitant to completely identify as one.
“I was certainly not a victim by any means to the extent that other people have been to sexual predators,” Pearce said, but added that “the only days” he felt safe were the days when actor Simon Baker was also on set.
At that point, Pearce would be “dumped like a hot potato” as Spacey focused on the “10 times prettier” Aussie.
Pearce says he realised Spacey’s impact on him amid the #MeToo movement, during which the latter was accused by multiple male actors of sexual assault and harassment dating back decades.
“I broke down and sobbed, and I couldn’t stop” upon hearing the allegations, Pearce recalled. “I think it really dawned on me the impact that had occurred and how I sort of brushed it off and how I had either shelved it or blocked it out or whatever. That was a really incredible wake-up call.”
In the years since, Pearce says he’s “had a couple of confrontations with Kevin” that “got ugly,” adding that he doesn’t “want him to get away with what he gets away with.”
In response, the former House Of Cards star slammed Pearce on Tuesday in a video posted to X, in which he bemoaned his former co-star trying to “play this out in the media … 28 years later, after I’ve been through hell and back.”
“Just in time to stop the bad guy? Is that what’s going on here? What took you so long?” Spacey asked. “I mean, you want to have a conversation, I’m happy to do so, any time, any place,” but then told Pearce he’s “not a victim.”
Earlier in his response, the American Beauty star asked whether Pearce noted in his interview that “a year after we shot L.A. Confidential, you flew to Savannah, Georgia, while I was filming Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil just to spend time with me? I mean, did you tell the press that too? Or does that not fit into the victim narrative you have going?”
Spacey then sarcastically apologised for not getting “the message” that Pearce didn’t want to spend time with him.
“I mean maybe there was another reason, I don’t know. But that doesn’t make any sense that you would’ve just been leading me on, right?” Spacey quipped.
In recent years, more than 50 men have publicly accused Spacey of sexual misconduct. In 2023, he was acquitted of all nine counts for which he was on trial in a London court. Less than a year earlier, a New York jury found he did not sexually abuse actor Anthony Rapp. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
