Kevin Spacey, the non-conforming actor who shot into fame, popularity, and cinematic immortality within the span of one single take of a camera panning away in the late 90s movie, The Usual Suspects, was far from being the heroic type. Be it in the reels of a film or the reality of the world beyond Hollywood Hills, Spacey neither looked the part nor did he live out his days under the light of fame and glory to see what lies at the end of the rainbow.
Kevin Spacey’s Rise and Fall in Hollywood
The Usual Suspects star was not always associated with the kind of fame that came with the 1995 shocker. Instead, Kevin Spacey has been gradual in his short rise in Hollywood. The actor, who much rather would mold into the role of an anti-hero or villain, was ingeniously adaptive to his characters insomuch that Keyser Söze has become as synonymous to Kevin Spacey as it is the other way around. And yet, there exists the dilemma of all great artists having their fair share of dark demons to battle with. For Spacey, the demons ran deeper than usual.
Also read: Kevin Spacey Will Pay $31 Million For Breaching House of Cards Contract
In 2017, accused of rape and pedophilia, the Oscar-winner was plagued by a barrage of charges (within a week of the first accusation being levied against him) from more than a dozen men, most of whom claimed that they were minors at the time of the assault. Spacey was soon after dropped from his then-ongoing projects, including the award-winning series, House of Cards. His appearance in the public space since then has been negligible, and yet, once upon a blue moon, the actor had high hopes of encroaching into the world of politics in case Hollywood didn’t prove satisfying to his tastes anymore.
Kevin Spacey’s Tenure as a Would-Be Politician
During an Inside the Actors Studio interview, Kevin Spacey famously claimed his profession of choice would be politics if he had to choose one other than acting. As far as his tenure as a politician was concerned, it was limited to his part in the House of Cards series, up until his high-profile unceremonious exit from the show’s sixth season.
After a production assistant on the David Fincher series came forward accusing the Oscar-winning lead actor of groping him, a week later, the tally of accusers amounted to 15, and an investigation into the matter found Kevin Spacey standing accused of “systematically preying upon, sexually harassing, and groping young men that he had worked with throughout his career on film, television, and theatre” resulting in him being ordered to pay $31 million to the Netflix series in damages in October 2020.
House of Cards is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Inside the Actors Studio