Redgrave avoiding Spacey
Declines role in husband’s film with tainted star
• British star Vanessa Redgrave has put some distance between herself and The Man Who Drew God, the Italian project that’s meant to be Kevin Spacey’s big comeback movie.
Redgrave’s name was widely mentioned as being attached to the film, known in Italian as L’uomo Che Disegnò Dio, directed by Franco Nero, Redgrave’s husband since 2006. Nero is set to star as the main character and direct the drama, based on a true story of a blind artist said to be able to draw a portrait from hearing a person’s voice.
“Vanessa Redgrave’s name is being included in recent stories relating to the casting of the upcoming film The Man Who Drew God,” her representatives said Wednesday. “While there have been discussions about the possibility of her joining the cast, she will not appear in the film.”
Redgrave, an Oscar winner for Julia and Primetime Emmy winner for If These Walls Could Talk 2, will not comment further.
Louis Nero, the producer of the film (and no relation to Franco Nero), had confirmed to Variety Spacey was on board to make a cameo in the film. He said Spacey would feature in a small role as a police detective.
Nero has since defended casting Spacey, Entertainment Weekly reports, and denied earlier reports that the storyline involves pedophilia.
“In Italy, we don’t know details on everything, so we don’t speak about what we don’t know about,” Nero told EW. “I cannot speak about these things. I only know that Kevin is a great actor. That was my concern, and no more than that.”
Nero had earlier also confirmed to Variety that Redgrave, 84, would appear in the film if she could travel to Italy from England, but would play only a small cameo as the piano teacher of Franco Nero’s character.
The casting would mark Spacey’s first new film role after multiple sexual assault and misconduct allegations made against him beginning in late 2017.
Among them is Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp, who alleged in a 2017 Buzzfeed article that Spacey made sexual advances at him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26.
The Buzzfeed article prompted more than a dozen other allegations of sexual misconduct against Spacey, all of which he denies. But the controversy cost him his starring role on House of Cards and involvement in other projects.