I had no power wand to force people into bed, Kevin Spacey tells UK court
Kevin Spacey dismissed sexual assault allegations against him as “absolute bollocks” as he denied waving a “power wand” to force people into bed with him.
In combative exchanges at Southwark crown court on Friday, the Oscarwinning actor denied that the “crotch grab” was his “trademark move”.
He also rejected claims that he used his power and influence as the “golden boy of the London theatre scene” to convince men to sleep with him.
Spacey, who was the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre from 2003 to 2015, told a packed courtroom: “I did not have a power wand that I waved in front of people’s faces to make them go to bed with me. I respect when people tell me they’re not interested and that’s what I’ve done my whole life.”
He said that at times he was “promiscuous”, adding: “It doesn’t make me a bad person.” He continued: “I am sure if I wanted to I could have had sex all the time with lots of people, but I didn’t.”
Spacey, 63, denies charges including sexual assault and indecent assault against four men in their 20s and 30s between 2001 and 2013. Three of the four complainants accuse him of aggressively groping them.
Wearing a navy suit and a light blue shirt, Spacey appeared in the witness box on Friday for a second day to face questions from the prosecutor, Christine Agnew KC.
She said to him: “You suggested yesterday that you’re just a big flirt but I’m going to suggest you’re wrong about that, you are just a big sexual bully.”
Spacey replied: “Yes, that’s your term.”
At times Spacey appeared vexed by Agnew’s comments and had to be told by the judge, Mr Justice Mark Wall, to answer her questions.
During one heated exchange, the prosecutor suggested Spacey had assaulted a man he met at a West End theatre in the mid-2000s. The man has accused Spacey of groping him “like a cobra” after making a “barrage of vile comments”.
Agnew suggested Spacey had “grabbed him by the crotch”. Spacey shot back: “Absolute bollocks.” Agnew continued: “Yes, because that is exactly where you did grab him, isn’t it?”
“Really?” Spacey replied in apparent exasperation as he looked to the judge. Wall told him to answer the question being put to him.
“Did he accuse me of grabbing his bollocks?” Spacey continued, and when the judge said “yes”, Spacey told the court: “I did not.”
Agnew suggested Spacey “got turned on and decided to go for it”, and the actor replied: “You are just making it up now.”
The judge told him: “You must answer the question. If the question is improper, I will stop it. Counsel is putting to you the prosecution case as to what you did and why you did it.”
The judge was forced to intervene on a number of occasions, telling Spacey at one point to concentrate on his memories “rather than trying to analyse the evidence”.
Responding to allegations made by an aspiring actor who has accused Spacey of drugging him before performing oral sex on him while he was asleep in his flat in the late 2000s, Spacey said: “We were in a romantic situation. I don’t know who made the first move, but we were consensually together in a romantic situation.
“He did not fall asleep and I did not perform oral sex on him while he was asleep, despite what he has shockingly accused me of.”
When Agnew suggested the complainant had been asleep, Spacey said: “That’s your theory.” “Well, that is the prosecution case,” Agnew responded. Spacey replied: “And it’s a weak one.”
Spacey said he had a consensual “naughty” relationship with another accuser in the early 2000s. The man has claimed that on one occasion he was driving Spacey to a party hosted by Elton John when Spacey grabbed his penis with such force that he almost crashed.
Spacey denied the claim, saying: “I would never have grabbed anyone’s penis so hard that they would have shouted out.” He added of their relationship: “It was somewhat sexual, but we never actually had sex and at no point did our parts emerge.”
Spacey also denied grabbing the crotch of a man at his Cotswolds holiday home after meeting the complainant at a pub near Oxford in the early 2010s. “I can only tell you that we had all had a lot of drinks and, I think millions of people know what this experience is like, you make a pass at someone and you figure out you got the wrong signals and you’re embarrassed and you try to move on from that. It happens,” he said.
Spacey is said to have smoked prerolled cannabis joints with the complainant and others. He told the court: “It is very usual that I have a number of cannabis joints ready and rolled. I like to get high.”
Spacey denies 12 charges: seven of sexual assault, three of indecent assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
The trial continues.