While working on his breakout film The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey's alleged sexual misconduct reportedly halted production.
Filming was abruptly shut down for two days after Spacey was accused of sexually inappropriate behaviour involving a younger actor, reports Entertainment Weekly.
According to his co-star, Gabriel Byrne, nobody knew why at the time. "I did not know honestly then the extent of his violence," said Byrne in an interview with The Sunday Times. "I mean, he was kind of a joke in that people would say, 'That's Kevin,' but nobody really understood the depth of his predations. It was only years later that we began to understand that filming was closed down for a particular reason."
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Spacey would go on to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1995 thriller.
Spacey was fired from the Netflix series House of Cards in November after being accused of assaulting actor Anthony Rapp when Rapp was only 14 years old. His responded in a statement saying that he did not remember the encounter, apologising to Rapp for "what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour."
According to an article published by CNN published shortly after Rapp came forward, Spacey reportedly displayed "predatory" behaviour while on the set of House of Cards. Eight current and former employees accused the actor of touching staffers without consent and making lewd comments, adding that they were usually directed at young, male production staff. One former production assistant accused Spacey of sexually assaulting him during an early season of the show. "I was in a state of shock," the production assistant recalled in an interview with CNN, adding that he believed that type of behaviour was routine for the actor, who had no problem exploiting his position. "He was a man in a very powerful position on the show and I was someone very low on the totem pole and on the food chain there."
Gabriel Byrne compared Spacey to ousted producer Harvey Weinstein, saying they both possessed "that element of absolute abuse of power."