NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Spacey remained composed Tuesday during cross examination at a civil trial, repeatedly rejecting suggestions that he wasn't telling the truth when he denied an actor’s claims that he made a sexual advance on him when he was 14 in the 1980s.
His testimony for several hours on cross examination by a lawyer for actor Anthony Rapp, 50, went smoothly enough that Spacey's lawyer did not ask any questions after the examination was completed by early afternoon. in the trial, now in its third week. He is seeking $40 million in damages.
Addressing Rapp's lawyer as “sir,” Spacey didn't seem rattled a day after that he regretted following the advice of his handlers to be “friendly and cordial” in responding to Rapp's claims in 2017 that Spacey picked him up and briefly laid on top of him on a bed in his apartment in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and he was 26.
“In my heart, I did not believe this had happened,” Spacey said of his reaction to the claims. He said he was “terrified” and went along with his handlers proposal of a public statement saying he didn't recall the encounter but if it happened, “I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
“The whole thing was horrifying," Spacey said.
Rapp's claims, and those of others, abruptly interrupted what had been a high-flying career for the two-time Academy Award winning actor, who lost his job on the Netflix series “House of Cards” and saw other opportunities dry up. Rapp is a regular on TV's “Star Trek: Discovery” and was part of the original Broadway cast of “Rent.”
Spacey, 63, admitted entertaining Rapp and Rapp's friend, John Barrowman, one evening in 1986 after they saw Spacey perform in “Long Day's Journey into Night.” But he said if he had a romantic interest, it was Barrowman, not Rapp, who was performing at the time in “Precious Sons” on Broadway.
Spacey recalled dancing with the then-19-year-old Barrowman at the Limelight dance club and said he invited Barrowman and Rapp to his apartment afterward to see his dog.
Once there, Barrowman and Spacey “playfully had a moment together” on his bed in a visit to the apartment that lasted about a half hour, the actor said. Barrowman testified in a deposition partially played in court Monday that Rapp was in the restroom when Barrowman and Spacey briefly flirted on the bed.
“It was a flirtatious and playful moment between two people who were attracted to each other,” Spacey said. “I was captivated by John Barrowman.”
On Monday, Spacey testified that he was sure he was never alone with Rapp, and that Rapp's claim that Spacey made a pass at him after a party at his apartment was not true.
“I knew I wouldn’t have any sexual interest in Anthony Rapp or any child. That I knew,” Spacey said.
Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
