A jury has heard Kevin Spacey was trying to satisfy sexual urges when he jumped on top of a then-14-year-old actor on a bed at a party in 1986, but his lawyer has said it never happened.
Key points:
- It is alleged Kevin Spacey tried to seduce Anthony Rapp in a bedroom at a party in 1986
- A lawyer said Mr Spacey was trying to get Mr Rapp to stay "to gratify his sexual desire"
- Mr Spacey has not spoken about the matter since 2017 and will testify at the trial
Mr Spacey is facing trial after Anthony Rapp made the first in a string of sexual misconduct allegations against him in 2017.
The lawsuit stems from an alleged encounter between the two in 1986, when Mr Rapp was a child actor performing in a Broadway play and Mr Spacey, then 26, was having a breakout moment on Broadway.
Mr Rapp said the older actor invited him to a party at his Manhattan apartment, then tried to seduce him in a bedroom after the other guests had left.
Mr Rapp's lawyer, Peter Saghir, said a drunk, swaying Mr Spacey swept him up in his arms, like a groom carrying "a bride over a threshold", then laid him on a bed and climbed on top of him.
Mr Saghir said Mr Rapp would testify that he quickly wriggled away and fled to a bathroom, before encountering Mr Spacey again near the door as he tried to leave.
"Are you sure you want to go?" the lawyer said Mr Spacey asked him.
Mr Saghir said Mr Spacey was trying to get Mr Rapp to stay "to gratify his sexual desire" after pressing his pelvis into Mr Rapp's hips when they were on the bed.
"This was a deliberate act," the lawyer said.
"This is not horseplay."
When Mr Rapp told his story to Buzzfeed in 2017 as the #MeToo movement began to grip Hollywood, Mr Spacey said he had no recollection of the incident.
"But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour," he said at the time.
Since then, though, Spacey's legal team has said the accusation is false.
Mr Rapp never attended the party, they said and even if it had happened as Rapp described, they have argued, it wouldn't constitute a sexual advance.
Mr Rapp is seeking compensation for mental and emotional suffering, medical expenses and loss of work.
Attorney Jennifer Keller, who is representing Mr Spacey, said the actor had avoided discussing the case in the media and on social media but was looking forward to testifying at trial.
"He wants justice," she said.
"Once you've heard both sides, you'll be convinced this alleged assault never happened at all."
Ms Keller said Mr Rapp sued Mr Spacey and spoke out "for attention, for sympathy and to raise his own profile" as Mr Spacey's career made him a household name while Mr Rapp's career never blossomed in the same way.
The trial comes three months after Mr Spacey pleaded not guilty in London to charges that he sexually assaulted three men between 2004 and 2015 when he was the artistic director at the Old Vic theatre.
A judge in Los Angeles approved an arbitrator's decision in August to order Mr Spacey to pay $30.9 million ($48 million) to the makers of House of Cards for violating his contract by sexually harassing crew members.
In 2019 prosecutors in Massachusetts dropped indecent assault and battery charges filed after a man said Mr Spacey groped him at a Nantucket bar.
Mr Spacey said he was innocent and his accuser also dropped a civil lawsuit.
Mr Rapp, who as a teenager acted in films including Adventures in Babysitting, was part of the original Broadway cast of Rent, and is now a regular on Star Trek: Discovery on television.
AP
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2022-10-06 22:46:36Z
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