The two part documentary KEVIN SPACEY UNMASKED is yet to hit US screens, but thanks to the magic of VPN we got to spend a couple of hours digesting this excellent Brit program. After all the two time Academy Award winner Spacey was a London resident for some years when he became the Artistic Director at the legendary Old Vic. It was during his time here that the truth he had tried to surpress for all these years, finally came out.
In 2023 on his 64th Birthday after a star turn in the witness box of a London Courtroom, Spacey was acquitted of sexual assault avoiding a possible prison term and offered him hope of a career comeback after six years without a job. Three men had accused Spacey of aggressively grabbing their crotches, describing him as “vile” and a “slippery, snaky” predator. A fourth, an aspiring actor, said he awoke to Space performing oral sex on him after falling asleep or passing out in Spacey’s London apartment where he had gone for career advice and a beer.
His lawyer Patrick Gubbs KC (and one time Barrister of The Year) said three of the men were liars and that their encounters had been “reimagined with a sinister spin.” He accused them of hopping on a #MeToo “bandwagon” in the hope of striking it rich.
The case finally forced Spacey to very reluctantly come out as ‘gay’, and the sense you get from this is his rampant internalised homophobia that would have remained intact if the court case had never happened.
Kudos to filmmaker Katherine Haywood who chose to interview 10 men not involved in the trial. Their allegations against Spacey are not only serious, but unquestionably 100% authentic. Even Alan Ball the Academy Award winning writer of American Beauty (Spacey’s finest role) could not have concocted details of such believable predatory attacks. Several of the victims were aspiring actors convinced by Spacey that he could help their careers and get them the big break they so wanted. Instead, all of these heterosexual men got, was Spacey aggressively pawing their genitals whilst also exposing his.
Somewhere along the way there is a comment ….. almost as a justification for Spacey being so closeted …. that no one mainstream gay actor had come out and become an A list star. It may be true but still doesn’t condone any of Spacey;s atrocious behaviour. Or even throwing in facts that his father had been a major Nazi supporter who had constantly abused Spacey;’s older brother!.
Haywood unbiasedly steers the series relying on the actual facts …… and there are many of them …… and thankfully allows us to make our own conclusions on this unmasking. In our case, if we had been in the jury, wewould never allowed him to walk out of the Court as a free man.
Spacey doesnt help himself either . He not only denies all the allegations but has publicly dismissed this documentary as being completely untrue. What irritates one most is his sheer arrogance fueled by his belief that no-one had the right to challenge him in any way. Even when he was accused of sexual impropriety with an unwillingly 14 year old Anthony Rapp. Spacey is the star after all.
P.S. The story is far from over as the actor is set to face a civil trial in the U.K. in 2025 after being sued by a man who alleges Spacey sexually assaulted him.
The man — who has been granted anonymity by the court — claims he “suffered psychiatric damage and other financial loss” as a result of the alleged sexual assault, which he says took place in August 2008.
PS He has made three movies since the Court Case BUT none of them had theatrical releases
SPACEY UNMASKED is now streaming on MAX in then uS
ROGER WALKER-DACK Creator, Editor-in-Chief Miami Beach, FL / Provincetown, MA
IG @QUEERGURU Member
of G.A.L.E.C.A. (Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) and
NLGJA The Association of LGBT Journalists. and The Online Film Critics Society. Ex Contributung Editor
The Gay Uk & Contributor Edge Media Former CEO and Menswear Designer of Roger Dack Ltd in the UK
Labels: 2024, Channel 4, documentary, Katherine Haywood, Kevin Spacey, sexual abuse scandals
