Gabriel Byrne, star of 1995 Oscar-winning film The Usual Suspects, told the UK Sunday Times that production on the film was halted for two days after a younger actor accused Kevin Spacey of sexually inappropriate behavior. Byrne went on to explain that at the time, no one knew why production had stopped, but they later came to learn of the allegations.
“I did not know honestly then the extent of his violence. I mean, he was kind of a joke in that people would say, ‘That’s Kevin,’ but nobody really understood the depth of his predations. It was only years later that we began to understand that [filming] was closed down for a particular reason and that was because of inappropriate sexual behavior by Spacey.”
Spacey now has accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior spanning three separate decades, with the dam breaking when actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of advancing on him when he was 14 years old in the 1980s, while multiple more people have come forward, accusing Spacey of predatory behavior. Byrne went on to call Spacey a “bully,” saying that he and now-disgraced Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein shared a trait: “that element of absolute abuse of power.”
Since the allegations have surfaced, Spacey has been removed from his Netflix series House of Cards, been cut from All The Money In The World and now his former co-stars are adding to the ever-expanding backlog of accusations.
(Via UK Sunday Times/Deadline)