Kevin Spacey faces New York jury in sexual assault lawsuit

Kevin Spacey is facing a jury in a New York City courtroom during a civil trial accusing him of sexually abusing a 14-year-old actor in the 1980s when he was 26

Kevin Spacey's lawyer told a jury on October 6, 2022, that a sexual misconduct allegation that derailed his theatrical career was the product of a young actor's inability to tell the difference between real life and a scene he played on Broadway eight times a week.

Jurors in a New York courtroom heard opening statements in what is expected to be a two-week trial in a lawsuit brought by Anthony Rapp, the actor who in 2017 became the first in a string of people to publicly accuse the “House of Cards” star of inappropriate touching or sexual advances.

The lawsuit stems from an alleged encounter between the two men in 1986, when Rapp was a 14-year-old getting praise for a role in the play “Precious Sons” and Spacey, then 26, was having his own breakout moment on Broadway as the co-star of “Long Day's Journey Into Night.”

Rapp says 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.

In interviews and the lawsuit, he has said a drunk, swaying Spacey swept him up in his arms, like a groom carrying a bride, then laid him on a bed and climbed on top of him. Rapp said he quickly wriggled away and left, then kept quiet about what happened for three decades as both actors saw their careers take off.

In her opening statement to the jury, Spacey's lawyer, Jennifer Keller, noted that the incident Rapp described bore a close resemblance to a scene in “Precious Sons.” In the scene, an inebriated father, played by Ed Harris, mistook his son, played by Rapp, for his wife and climbed on top of him. In another scene, Harris lifted Rapp in his arms.

“How did Mr. Rapp come up with such an inventive and original story?" Keller asked the jury. “Eight times each week, actor Ed Harris picked up Mr. Rapp like a groom picks up a bride.”