Kevin Spacey responds to fresh claims ahead of documentary

In an interview with former GB News presenter Dan Wootton, he commented on claims made in an upcoming Channel 4 documentary.

While accepting he may at times have behaved inappropriately in the past, he denied his behaviour was illegal.

Mr Spacey has been cleared of sexual assault in trials in the US and UK.

"I take full responsibility for my past behaviour and my actions. But I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologise to anyone who's made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me," Mr Spacey told Mr Wootton.

"I've never told someone that if they give me sexual favours, then I will help them out with their career, ever," he said.

"I've clearly hooked up with, you know, some men who thought they might get ahead in their careers by having a relationship with me. But there was no conversation with me, it was all part of their plan, one that was always destined to fail, because I wasn't in on the deal."

Spacey Unmasked, a Channel 4 documentary, is due to be released next week.

Actors Ruari Cannon and Danny De Lillo are among those featured in the documentary. Both have given interviews published today alleging inappropriate behaviour by Mr Spacey.

Mr Cannon alleges that in 2013, Mr Spacey touched him inappropriately in public at a press night for an Old Vic theatre production. Mr Spacey said the allegation was "ridiculous and it never happened".

Mr De Lillo alleges the actor thrust his groin towards his face while he was seated at a production at the same theatre. Mr Spacey said he found the accusation "completely offensive".

"There were certainly times when I was inappropriate and flirty with people I worked with at that theatre, a few I had consensual liaisons with," he said.

A number of other allegations from the documentary were put to Mr Spacey, who denied accusations of illegal behaviour in all cases.

"Were there times when I would flirt with some of the people who were involved in those programmes who were in their 20s? Yes. Did I ever hook up with another actor? Yes. Did I make a clumsy pass at someone who wasn't interested as it turned out? Yes."

He added: "That may not have been the best decision and it's not one that I would do today. But it happened. It wasn't illegal, and nor has it ever been alleged to have been illegal."

In a statement released on Friday night, lawyers acting for Mr Spacey said there was no public interest in the public being misinformed with the publication of "false and unverified allegations" which were "largely historic, dating as far back as almost 50 years ago".

Mr Spacey, the lawyers said, had "not been provided with anything more than very general, anonymised information" about the claims and had been left "with little choice but to make his own public statement" in the form of his interview with Mr Wootton.

Mr Spacey said accusations against him by Anthony Rapp, who accused him of sexual assault, did not happen. If they did, Mr Spacey said "when I was in my twenties, it would have been simply embarrassing but not criminal".

In 2022, a New York court dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit against Mr Spacey by Mr Rapp, who alleged the actor inappropriately touched him at a party in 1986 when he was aged 14.

Last year, in a separate trial in London, Mr Spacey was cleared of nine sexual offence charges relating to four men between 2001 and 2013.

The Hollywood star won best actor Oscar in 2000 for American Beauty, and best supporting actor in 1995 for The Usual Suspects.

He was also the artistic director at the Old Vic Theatre in London between 2004 and 2015.

In a statement, the Old Vic said it had conducted an investigation in 2017 into alleged inappropriate conduct by Kevin Spacey at the theatre between 2005 and 2013.

"There were no findings of fact regarding the alleged misconduct and there is no evidence of any formal complaints being made against Kevin Spacey during his tenure," the theatre said, adding that it took responsibility for what came to light and publicly apologised.

Mr Spacey's career came to a halt in 2017 after a number of accusations of inappropriate behaviour were made against him.

At the time, he had the starring role of Frank Underwood in Netflix political drama House of Cards, which he lost.

Mr Wootton, a former editor of the Sun's Bizarre column, last year admitted making "errors of judgement" following reported claims about payments to media colleagues for explicit material, but he strongly denied criminality.

-bbc