Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Kevin Spacey always felt “attacked” by the gay community.
The House of Cards actor only went public about his sexuality in 2017 after being accused of sexual misconduct and thought he thought he had been “so clever” in keeping his attraction to men a secret for so many years, people were talking about him and he felt upset at the lack of understanding he experienced.
Speaking to Bill Maher on the Club Random podcast, he said: “I was fiercely closeted. I didn’t want anyone to know anything about me and of course I thought I was so clever that no one knew.
“There was so many stories about me. There was lots of talk about that I was gay and I just wasn’t out and rather than the gay community understanding that…I always felt that I was being attacked.”
While Kevin has always denied the allegations of sexual misconduct, in March he agreed to a settlement with three men who accused him of sexual assault before the case could go to trial.
The 66-year-old star noted he had “hit on” a lot of guys but claimed a number of allegations about his behaviour had been “redesigned” or even “entirely made up”.
He said: “I hit on a lot of guys. There are certain cases where part of something is true, but it’s been rethought, it’s been redesigned, or it’s been entirely made up, certainly in the case of Anthony Rapp, which is a case that we won in federal court in New York.”
After seeing his career nosedive in the wake of the allegations against him, the American Beauty star is hopeful things are changing.
Referring to his struggle to get cast in recent years, Bill said: “A 10-year sentence is a serious sentence.”
Kevin replied: “I feel less in jail than I did. When people actually start to hear the facts, understand what we won in courts, I think people now look at this and think, ‘Maybe nine years has been enough.’…
“I feel much more welcomed, and I think that things are moving in the direction that we hoped they were moving in.”
In 2017, Anthony Rapp alleged Kevin had assaulted him in his New York apartment when he was a teenager and subsequently filed a $40 million civil lawsuit for sexual assault and battery, but a New York jury ultimately found the Oscar-winning actor not liable on all counts.
Kevin previously admitted to having been “too handsy” at times.
During an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, he said: “[I was] pushing the boundaries … being too handsy, you know. Touching someone sexually, in a way that I didn’t know at the time that they didn’t want.”
Asked if his behaviour amounted to groping, he replied: “Yeah.”
He added: “I agree that the word grope is a very odd word. I personally … I have caressed people. I have been gentle with people. That is the way that I am.
“You’re making a pass at someone, you don’t want to be aggressive – you want to be gentle. You want to see if they’re going to respond positively. So, I think the word itself is not a word that I associate with my experience.”
