Cut! Every Spacey scene erased from blockbuster just weeks before release
KEVIN Spacey is to be erased from a big budget Hollywood film just weeks before it is due to be seen in cinemas.
The decision to remove all his scenes follows a series of sexual assault allegations made against the double Oscarwinning actor. British director Ridley Scott has ordered that Spacey’s performance in All the Money in the World be deleted and reshot.
Spacey, who played the late oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty in the film, will reportedly be replaced by 87-year-old Christopher Plummer.
The bold – and expensive – undertaking has raised questions over whether the film will be ready in time for its release date on December 22 but the director has insisted it will be. It is understood that Spacey spent three and a half weeks filming his scenes.
The film’s co-stars, Michelle Williams
‘Expensive undertaking’
and Mark Wahlberg, have agreed to participate in re-shoots with Plummer.
Scott, known for blockbusters such as Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator, has a reputation for working fast and insiders have said that if anyone can achieve the feat, he can.
Before the allegations surrounding Spacey emerged, he was being touted as an Oscar contender for his portrayal of Getty. The 58-year- old actor wore heavy prosthetics that transformed him into an octogenarian who’d had several bad plastic surgery jobs.
Set mostly in Rome in 1973, the movie details how Getty refused to meet a £15million ransom demand when 16-year-old grandson John Paul Getty III was kidnapped, despite being the richest man in the world at the time. Getty argued that if he were to pay the ransom then his remaining 14 grandchildren also faced a risk of kidnap.
Williams plays Gail Harris, John Paul’s mother, while Wahlberg plays ex- CIA agent Fletcher Chase. In an interview with Enter- tainment Weekly, Spacey once gushed that it was ‘one of the most remarkable experiences that I’ve had as an actor.’
More than a dozen men have come forward with allegations that Spacey, a former artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London, made inappropriate sexual advances. His behaviour first came under scrutiny when actor Anthony Rapp alleged that he was sexually harassed by Spacey in 1986 when he was just 14.
Spacey responded to the allegation by saying he didn’t recall the incident but also apologised if he acted in such a way while drunk.