Updated: For now, Kevin Spacey remains persona non grata in Hollywood, but it seems Italy’s film industry is less bothered by the more than 15 accusations of sexual misconduct that have been leveled at the actor since 2017. Over the weekend, ABC News reported that the disgraced 61-year-old had landed his first film role since 2018’s Billionaire Boys Club.
But the project sounds like a far cry from the two-time Oscar winner’s heyday appearing in big studio blockbusters like Seven (1995) and Superman Returns (2006). Spacey will reportedly have a small cameo in L’uomo Che Disegnò Dio (The Man Who Drew God), a “low-budget indie” directed by Italian actor Franco Nero.
“I’m very happy Kevin agreed to participate in my film,” Nero has said. “I consider him a great actor and I can’t wait to start the movie.”
Nero starred in the 1966 Spaghetti Wester Django. More recently he has appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012) and John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017). He has been romantically involved with famed English actor Vanessa Redgrave since 1966. The couple married in 2006. On Wednesday, Redgrave’s camp released a statement distancing her from the project after it was reported that she was expected to appear in L’uomo Che Disegnò Dio. “While there have been discussions about the possibility of her joining the cast, she will not appear in the film,” the statement reads according to Variety.
And it seems Nero must have been looking to spice up his new film with a little metatextual perversion: the role he’s cast Spacey to play is that of a detective investigating a man wrongly accused of pedophilia.
The first public accusation against Spacey came in 2017, when actor Anthony Rapp claimed that in 1986, a 26-year-old Spacey made sexual advances toward the then 14-year-old Rapp. Over a dozen others came forward with similar allegations in the following weeks. But while his A-list career took an immediate nosedive, Spacey has yet to face any legal consequences. So far, all criminal cases against him have been closed in the US, though an investigation into an accusation in the UK is ongoing. Meanwhile, Rapp’s civil lawsuit against Spacey was dealt a blow earlier this month when a New York judge ruled that his fellow accuser could not remain anonymous.
Though there have been no reports of producers or directors in the US eager to work with Spacey again, it isn’t outlandish to read Nero’s decision to cast him as the first step toward a redemption arc, as The A.V. Club snarkily put it. It’s also a reminder that, even post #MeToo, consequences for men like Spacey have been inconsistent and occasionally short-lived.
If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of crisis support, please call the RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
