Kevin Spacey saw his run on House of Cards end when multiple sexual assault allegations came to light as part of the #MeToo movement. His character, Frank Underwood, was unceremoniously killed off, an off-camera end to his tenure on a show that wrapped up on Netflix without him.
Spacey has generally laid low as his star continued to fall and stories about his sexual misconduct on the set of movies and TV shows spiraled to the point where Underwood was dead and it appeared his career had followed.
But it turns out Spacey wasn’t done just yet with Frank Underwood. On Monday, Christmas Eve, Spacey tweeted out a link to a bizarre YouTube video where he reprised his role as the dishonest, scheming politician.
Let Me Be Frank https://t.co/OzVGsX6Xbz
— Kevin Spacey (@KevinSpacey) December 24, 2018
Clever wordplay aside, the video is extremely strange.
“I know what you want,” Spacey said. “Oh sure, they tried to separate us but what we have is too strong, it’s too powerful.”
He then said that, despite what you may think otherwise, that we need Spacey as Frank Underwood. Or perhaps him as himself. It’s all a bit unclear, but it’s more than a bit disturbing nonetheless.
“I know what you want: you want me back,” Spacey continued. “Of course some believed everything and have been waiting with bated breath for me to confess it all. They’re just dying to declare that everything said is true, that I got what I deserved. Wouldn’t that be easy? If it was all so simple?”
Spacey, or Spacey-as-Underwood appears to be cooking something. He is wearing a Christmas-themed apron and occasionally sips a hot drink. It’s extremely strange, mixing the rhetoric of the show’s murky politics and deception with his own unprofessional and oftentimes illegal behavior as a person. Spacey speaks of his “impeachment without a trial” but it’s unclear if he means Underwood’s or his own. Perhaps it is both.
“Despite even my own death, I feel surprisingly good, and my confidence grows each day that soon enough you will know the full truth,” Spacey said pointing out that no one saw Underwood die and that conclusions may be deceiving. If you did not know the extremely disturbing reasons why Spacey no longer gets paid to be Frank Underwood on Netflix, it would almost be a fun teaser for another season of House of Cards.
But it’s not. And it’s especially disturbing because of another news item that surfaced on Christmas Eve, which is that Spacey will be charged by Nantucket police with felony sexual assault stemming from a 2016 incident with an 18-year-old at a bar. The Boston Globe reported on Monday that Spacey will be charged with the assault of the 18-year-old son of Heather Unruh, a Boston TV news anchor.
Unruh said that in July 2016 her then 18-year-old son was at The Club Car, where the actor was among the late-night crowd in the dimly lit restaurant. Her son was mesmerized by Spacey and told him he was old enough to drink, Unruh said previously.
Unruh said Spacey purchased alcohol for her son until he was drunk and then stuck his hand inside the man’s pants and grabbed his genitals. During the encounter, Unruh said, her son tried to shift his body away from Spacey but was “only momentarily successful.” The actor urged her son to accompany him to an after-hours party to drink more, she said.
Unruh said her son fled the restaurant when Spacey excused himself to use the bathroom and a woman urged the youth to run. He sprinted to his grandmother’s house and told his sister what happened, Unruh said.
Any entertainment property involving Spacey is generally considered to be toxic after his allegations continued to grow, so perhaps this is an effort to change that. But judging by the reaction from many, it was an extremely misguided attempt to get back in the public’s good graces.
