‘My Nazi father hated I was gay’
NEW YORK: Oscar-winning Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey has denied charges of sexual misconduct against a 14-yearold boy in 1986 as he took the stand in his $US40m trial.
Actor Anthony Rapp is suing Spacey for battery and is seeking $US40m ($63.5m) in damages over an incident he alleged occurred at a party in Manhattan.
In response to the first question from his lawyer, Jay Barron, Spacey said Rapp’s allegations were not true before revealing details about his childhood that he has “never talked about publicly”.
He claims that in 1986, Spacey, then 26, invited Rapp, then 14, to his Manhattan home where he picked the teenager up, laid him down on his bed, grabbed his buttocks and pressed his groin into Rapp’s body without his consent.
Rapp, at the start of his career at the time, said he was able to “swerve my way out” but the experience scarred him.
Spacey took the stand as the first witness in his own defence at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. He spoke about his childhood and how he and his siblings were forced to listen to their father’s beliefs, which he said turned him into a private person from an early age.
“My father was a white supremacist and neo-Nazi,” Spacey, 63, told the court, detailing the “hours and hours” he and his sibling would be subjected to the racist, violent and rightwing beliefs of their parent.
“I have never talked about these things publicly. Ever. My father used to yell at me about the idea I might be gay.
“He would scream at me: ‘don’t be a’ … he would use an ‘f’ word that was very derogatory to the gay community.”
Earlier in the day, Judge Lewis Kaplan threw out Rapp’s claim of emotional distress as the prosecution rested.
Rapp’s allegations were among several that made Spacey an early focus of the #MeToo movement in 2017. He is also facing trial in the UK for alleged sexual assault.
Spacey denies all allegations of any wrongdoing.