In rancid Hollywood tradition, Kevin Spacey gets a new movie role
Kevin Spacey will play a 'disembodied voice' in Control, his first film since he was found not liable for $40 million in a sexual misconduct lawsuit
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What more appropriate way for an alleged abuser to await trial for twelve separate counts of sexual assault than with a return to the big screen? For an older, once-prestigious white movie star, apparently nothing. Proving the point: Kevin Spacey has nabbed his first film role since he was found not liable for $40 million in a sexual misconduct lawsuit filed against him by Anthony Rapp. Last month, a judge and jury found that Spacey did not molest Rapp in 1986 (when Rapp was 14 years old) and that Spacey was not liable for battery.
Spacey will play a “disembodied voice” in Cutchogue Pictures’ Control, a new project from director and writer Gene Fallaize, per Variety. The film follows Stella Simmons (Lauren Metcalfe), a British government minister enveloped in a passionate affair with her superior, the Prime Minister (Mark Hampton). As she commutes home one evening through London, Stella’s self-driving car is remotely hijacked by an anonymous attacker, who knows about Stella’s illicit romance and wants revenge.
Despite his recent not-liable verdict and the career reassurance of a new project, Spacey isn’t out of the legal woods yet, and with good reason; the disgraced actor currently faces a dozen sexual assault charges in the U.K. In July, Spacey pleaded not guilty to five initial charges brought by three separate men and has yet to enter a plea for seven new charges authorized on November 16. A trial will begin next summer.
Fallaize, who says he “grew up” watching Spacey’s films, tells Variety that although Spacey’s embattled status was “a consideration” when casting Control, he “wouldn’t say it was a concern.”
“He’s one of the greatest actors of our generation,” Fallaize shares. “His personal life aside — it’s something I can’t comment on and have no knowledge of — it’s an opportunity to work with one of the acting greats.”
To that asinine point: personal life isn’t so personal when its contents are so troubling they lead to sexual misconduct trials in two separate countries. But money and prestige have a tendency to beget sway, and just how exhaustingly expected a new vehicle for Spacey is says quite a lot about the cultural desensitization to evaded consequences. The true and ugly reality of the industry: guffawing snidely in the face of “cancel culture,” again.
114 Comments
not to defend spacey but i wouldn’t exactly call this hollywood.
My thoughts exactly. If anything, for an actor of his acclaim, this is hitting bottom of the barrel when it comes to booking roles.
Also Cardi B admitted to drugging and robbing men and her career didn’t suffer.Guarantee you if tomorrow Eminem came out and said “I used to drug and rob women” his career would take a hit.
whataboutwhataboutwhatabout
Oh son: you will be consistent or you will shut the fuck up, Ask me how I know. Go on, ask me.
Dismissed. Never read and never will.
Ha you read every fucking word, just can’t refute shit. I love this.
Not only does this Cupsogue Pictures not have a Wikipedia article, it doesn’t even seem to have a web site.But, Newswires gotta whinge, I guess.
Are you telling me that Cupsogue Pictures isn’t on the same level as Universal or Warner Bros, or even Lionsgate? Just because they don’t even have a Wikipedia page doesn’t mean they are totally irrelevant does it?
Just because they don’t even have a Wikipedia page doesn’t mean they are totally irrelevant does it? Not only do they not have a Wikipedia, which, I agree, isn’t a huge deal, they don’t have a website. The company seemingly does not exist on the internet. There is no online presence at all. Any reputable production company/studio will at least have a website/address listed.Calling them irrelevant is accurate.
I was first going to say they didn’t have a website, but if you go to their Facebook page there is a link to a pretty crappy website. Which is why I changed it to Wikipedia. Either way this looks like a super low rent company and seems like a pretty good downfall for someone who was once at the level that Spacey used to be at. To me this is almost better than him never working again.
I couldn’t even find their facebook page
This is their apparent slate of films, for a sense of who they are:
https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0244207
I don’t know how Gene Fallaize made “Superman: Requiem” without getting sued. Was there just no revenue to sue him over?
Superman: Requiem was legal because it wasn’t released as a commercial product, ie they didn’t charge money for it. It was made as a “fan film” project and given away for free.
Maybe by calling it a “fan film”? No idea.
I’d bet money that articles like this one are a big part of why they cast him in the first place. What are the odds you’d have ever heard of this movie, from a studio and director with no cultural cachet, starring no one else you’d recognize, if not for internet outrage pieces about how much it sucks?
Hey now, you can’t expect a little entertainment website like the A.V. Club, which focuses on *checks notes* pop culture to recognize the difference between Hollywood and not Hollywood.
Yep. This is a movie from a production company I’ve never heard of, a writer/director I’ve never heard of, and starring a pair of actors I’ve never heard of. This is a movie that basically no one will be seeing anyways.
Were the allegations against him ever proven? Or was this more “he said, she said” stuff? And I dont subscribe to the notion that a lot of accusers means automatic guilt. Did any of them prove their claims?To be clear I don’t like or dislike Spacey. I’ve enjoyed some of his movies, but I’m not some huge fan trying to defend him. I just know these days we tend to treat accusations as true before we have any evidence. And we tend to count unfounded accusations as being evidence to support the other unfounded accusations.
Do you dare scoff at the directorial genius and pedo-bear stare of Gene Fallaiz!?Do you turn your nose up at such cinematic masterpieces like Taking Care of Business which received 3.6845 stars starring Tony Cook and Richard Goss who was an uncredited extra in Wrath of The Titans which has a 5.7 star rating? Huh? Huuuuh? Behold the veritable cornicopia of cinema from the man who brought you his take on Superman, zombies and Taken!
Do you “poo-poo” at the very mention of C list acting talents like Bruce Campbell, Danny Trejo, Brian Blessed, Peter Stormare and Sean Young!
Sir, this is an outrage!
I would not call Stormare C-list if I were you, dude.
Look everyone, it’s C-List musician and actor Tom Wait’s old hat!
Still my favorite on-screen Lucifer.
He’s also my favourite real Lucifer.Oh, I’ve said too much! Peter Stormare’s going to take my soul for this!
I have at least heard of those C list actors.
if we were talking about the charles grodin/james belushi ‘taking care of business’ i’d be right there with you!
What, you’ve never heard of Hollywood, England?
I think they’re trying to make the point that ‘cancel culture isn’t real’ for the umpteenth time. See? Kevin Spacey still gets ‘work’!!
It’s Cupsogue Pictures (in the main article) not Cutchogue Pictures.
As was said last time that it was brought up he was starring in an italian film that no one was likely to see, this isn’t exactly evidence that cancel culture doesn’t exist. Taking roles in independent films that no one is likely to see is also strong evidence that it does exist to some degree.
What people don’t realize is that the simple DESIRE to cancel is part of cancel culture. Yeah he’s got a part in a shitty movie, but if people had their way he would never work again. And yet they have no actual concrete evidence he molested anyone. So they want him to never work again based on an accusation.It’s just like with Dave Chappelle. The fact he gets netflix specials doesn’t contradict the fact people want him cancelled. And we’ve seen smaller comedy venues cancel his shows due to the “controversy”.It’s gaslighting to say cancel culture doesn’t exist. Heck I can give you a non-celebrity example: hispanic man was driving a truck, it was a company truck, so anyone who saw him in it would know where he worked. He had his arm hanging out the window and cracked his knuckles. Some imbecile saw it and thought it looked like he was making a white power symbol. Then got him fired.https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/502975-california-man-fired-over-alleged-white-power-sign-says-he-was/
I wouldn’t say “just like Dave Chapelle” since Chapelle isn’t facing any legal charges, and his career is doing much better. Like others in this thread have said, Spacey has actually been cancelled if you compare his career now vs when he was on House of Cards.
Because I was home most of the day and don’t have access to the account at work I would like to respond to this. I definitely think cancel culture is a thing, and that innocent people have caught up in examples such Isabel fall. But cancel culture can go after deserving targets , and I unambiguously believe Spacey deserves his cancellation. Do I have definitive proof that he sexually assaulted someone? No, I’ll never have that, and neither will you.
I do have fifteen men who have accused him of sexual misconduct:
https://www.insider.com/men-who-accused-kevin-spacey-of-sexual-harassment-list-2017-11
Most people who accuse someone else of sexual assault are telling the truth on the order of >= 90%. The probability that every single one of them is lying is rather low in my mind. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of them is lying (Law of Truly Large numbers is a thing, and when you have that many accusers the likelihood of a false accusation becomes much higher simply because you have a lot of accusations), but I’m willing to bet >= 90% of the accusations are true.
In other words: Fuck Kevin Spacey.
If he was a random guy accused sure, but when celebrities are involved I’m just hesitant to use the “well a lot of people say he did this” as actual evidence.You say he had a lot of accusers and see that as proof of guilt. Not definitive proof, but still you’re 90% sure. I see those numbers and think “well gee, then at least ONE of them should have proof for their claims, right?”. Is it that every single person making the claim just coincidentally happens to have no proof other than their own word?And I know some will say “well this stuff is hard to prove”. Exactly. Exactly why we should be careful who we label a rapist, child molester, etc. It’s not enough in this day and age to be found not guilty. People don’t care, they will just say the jury was bias, etc.
I’m not 90% sure. I said I’m sure that on the order of 90% of people are telling the truth. The way probability works is I feel there’s a 10% chance that every single person who accused him is lying. So the probability that every person is lying is (.1)^15 and thus the probability that at least one person is telling the truth is 1-(.1)^15= 0.999999999999999(the opposite probability) which is extremely close to 1, to the point that it’s somewhat laughable that that every single one of them is lying.
For the sake of argument let’s take your thesis into account, that since spacey is a celebrity you’re more likely to have people lying. Apparently there are actually 30 accusers from the cut article.
So let’s say that there’s 50% percent chance that an accuser is lying then. Then we have 1-(.5)^30 probability that someone is telling the truth which is approx .99999999906; So let’s say there’s a 90% chance that every accuser is lying then we have 1-(.9)^30 approx .96 chance that at least one person is telling the truth. You have to be ludicruously (on the order of 98%) sure that an acuser is lying to have a probability greater than 50% that they are all lying.
Finally I find corroborating testimony from numerous people about his behavior to be evidence, so I just don’t buy your thesis.In other words: Fuck Kevin Spacey.
And fuck every single piece of shit assuming guilt based on he said/she said bullshit. They need to pony up some real shit, real evidence, that does not rely on “someone else said it too!”. Isolate each case and take it on the evidence the specific accuser brought to the table.If there is that many accusers, one should have evidence.
well said
Winning a $40 million lawsuit filed against you ≠ winning $40 million.
Yeah, I was very…I was going to say ‘confused’, but really ‘Annoyed’ is more appropriate – at that
Yeah, that really made no sense when I read it and I had to research it elsewhere. I thought maybe he had countersued Rapp, but no, just an AV Club writer not understanding the subject.
“just an AV Club writer not understanding the subject.”The (Nu-)AV Club
The real shame here is that it would have been so, so, so easy to just rewrite the subhead and the sentence in the article itself to have been less nonsensical.
Since it’s just a voice role, they’ll have a much easier time replacing Spacey when the controversy gets out of hand than Ridley Scott did.
Fuck Kevin Spacey
No thank you. Yechh
I agree. I can’t even watch Rocket Gibraltar or The Ref now.
which is a shame as THE REF is amazingly good. I’m screwed on USUAL SUSPECTS (tried watching that last week and ooooof) and SE7EN, but there’s plenty more that he’s ruined. And he was my mom’s favorite actor. I’m so glad she died before he destroyed everything around him. Her coffee mug w/ his face on it is a sad reminder of the shittiness of celeb-worship.
“Last month, a jury found that Spacey did not molest Rapp in 1986” – are you sure that’s what they found? Because, while I’m no lawyer, I don’t think juries make those sorts of statements.
Nope, AV Club is accurate here. That is exactly what the civil jury found. That based on a preponderance of evidence, Spacey did not molest Rapp.
Technically not. Civil juries do not find that something did or did not happen; they find someone liable or not. The distinction is subtle, but not irrelevant. They found that spacey was not liable for molesting Rapp in 1986 – but that does not mean they found that he actively did not molest him; It just means they decided that there were not grounds for Rapp to recover anything for it, whether it happened or not.
It’s a direct quote from the source materialLast month Spacey won a $40 million civil trial in New York after a jury found he did not molest former co-star Anthony Rapphttps://variety.com/2022/film/news/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-loses-40-million-sexual-battery-lawsuit-1235410119/
How would you phrase it then? Because the way you put it seemingly goes in line with something I could imagine Donald Trump saying about the Central Park 5 after their wrongful conviction was overturned and changed to innocent… If a judge and jury can’t determine a facet of truth, then why do we even have a justice system? Why can’t people just rally up and lynch someone like the days of frontier justice? Without the atonement of a factually sound conclusion, is innocence only proved and effectual through one’s own personal opinion? Is anything ever truly factual? Or is gravity even real…? Because, while I’m no scientist, I don’t think physicists make those sorts of statements.You can see how absurd this gets when the decision of a jury is contested by our feelings. If we start to erode the decisions of the justice system only as we see fit, based simply on how we feel about the outcome, then we’re no better or different than those that laud the justice system for making decisions that oppose our feelings.
Yeah I thought it was more of a “Rapp’s recollections don’t totally line up therefore this isn’t valid” I don’t know that people walked away thinking “this means Spacey didn’t do it”. They just didn’t pin him on this one.
On the flip side, what evidence is there he did this? Rapp’s claims need to be supported by credible evidence before we take them seriously. What evidence did he bring to the table?
Nothing, unfortunately.
Cupsogue Pictures is a tiny independent studio in London. It’s literally not Hollywood.
“Kevin Spacey will play a ‘disembodied voice’ in Cupsogue Pictures Control, his first film since winning $40 million in a sexual misconduct lawsuit”Umm, I’m almost certain Spacey did not win $40 million from the Rapp lawsuit. He just doesn’t have to pay Rapp $40 million. I’m guessing you were led astray by the headline of the Variety article you’re cribbing: Kevin Spacey Books First Movie After Winning $40 Million Sexual Battery Lawsuit (https://variety.com/2022/film/global/kevin-spacey-movie-sexual-assault-charges-trial-1235443157/)
I was going to say, that’s one HELL of a countersuit! Like the judge/jury played a Reverse card from fucking UNO.
You don’t want the judge to play Draw Four. It means you have to face four randomly assigned pending lawsuits, and despite what people say, you cannot play your own Draw Four and foist them on someone else.
blogging is soooo hard when cut & paste doesn’t work
Oh, I may earn a commission from this comment… .. … …. ….. OF COCK
Considering that Cupsogue Pictures is essentially a fake production company and Kevin Spacey is basically acting (or voice acting) in movies that are a notch above fan-made, it’s hard to call this a win for him. Granted, it’s not jail, but since sexual assault is pretty hard to prove in a legal sense, kind of feels like the next best thing is knowing this Oscar-winning actor can’t even get Mel Gibson-level films anymore. One might even fairly argue this is a cancel culture win (if we’re forced to frame everything in those terms).
To me this is better. If he just went away and was never in anything ever again, he could just spin some bullshit about how he is retiring because of the state of modern show business and he chooses not to be involved. But this shows that he is trying to be involved and this kind of thing is the best that he can get. And for a two time Oscar winner former A list actor this is hilarious.
It’s hilarious if he’s guilty sure. Is there evidence showing he is? Any evidence to support Rapp’s claims? And “other people also accused him” won’t cut it.
“Other people” You mean thirty? Most with similar stories?
https://www.thecut.com/article/all-of-the-allegations-against-actor-kevin-spacey.html
As an honest question, how many people saying “yeah, I bought weed from that kid” do you think it would take to get a broke black teenager convicted of drug dealing, absent any other evidence, in the average American courtroom? I’d argue five is a liberal estimate, and anything over ten is patently untrue.
Irrelevant. We need evidence this happened.
Also we aren’t talking about a random person(and no need to make it racial). This is a celebrity.You say 30 accusers? Okay, surely ONE of them has proof to back up their claim right?
How do you “prove” some grabbed your junk in a private moment, other than multiple corroborating accounts of similar behavior? Spacey is being sued in civil court, not criminal, which means it just has to be more likely than not that he did it. Thirty people saying “yeah, he did that to me, too, around the same time” should absolutely be enough to tip the scale in a he said/he said situation, especially for an “is his comeuppance funny on the internet?” standard. If twenty-nine people saw the Hamburglar steal their hamburger, but they were all in the bathroom when you saw him steal yours, he absolutely should be made to buy a round for the restaurant. Kevin Spacey is the Hamburglar of sexual assault.
Also, why should the standard of proof be different for celebrities?
I don’t know, but I know you need more than “many people are saying”.They dont get to ruin someones life based on claims. Or rather: i guess they do, and fuck any piece of shit who supports that.
“I don’t know, but I know you need more than ‘many people are saying’.
No, you don’t. This isn’t a bunch of rumors and gossip. It’s thirty first person accounts saying “he did this directly to me or in front of me.” “I won’t believe this no matter how many eye-witnesses there are, and fuck anyone who will” is some crackpot shit.
Also, are you saying you will never ever believe accusations against a celebrity unless there are multiple accusations? So if one woman and one woman only accuses DeSantis of rape, you wont assume he is a rapist? How many accusations are needed? Is Brett Kavanaugh a rapist by your standards?
And dont gaslight me, you know damn well why it’s different for a celebrity. A person has incentive to make up some shit about a famous person more than they do some random guy. You can get more or that sweet sweet victimhood.
Multiple women have not accused Brad Pitt of abuse. Go ahead and say Angelina Jolie is lying?
“Also, are you saying you will never ever believe accusations against a celebrity unless there are multiple accusations?”
No. That doesn’t logically follow from anything I said. You’re bad at this.
He is, indeed, very bad at this.Our first interaction, the dude took my points, then attempted to cobble them into a strawman that he figured he could kick over. He failed at *that*.If the dude wants to actually “win” online arguments (which adults beyond Ben Shapiro know is a stupid, impossible desire), he could stand to work with what people actually *say*, and not his weird little interpretations of what people are actually saying.But, again, he’s an absolute fucking moron who is far worse at debate than he desperately wants to be. Usually these weird dipshits figure out that they are/were, in fact, weird dipshits, but I don’t know that lil’ chest has it in him.Hi, lil’ chest! You’re still staggeringly bad at identifying (let alone making) a point. Maybe you’ll do some damage when you wean yourself off of Hypocrisy 101. Hell, even PragerU would be a (mild – very mild) improvement. ;-*
Irony overload over this post. Good stuff champ. Now go read some more Raw Story and Daily Beast.
Let me guess: Tara Reid is lying about what Joe Biden did, but Christine Blasey Ford is totes legit telling the truth about Kavanaugh?
They don’t care, they’re only here to broadcast their hate boner for Cardi B.
Own your hypocrisy dipshit. Own it. Dont’ be an inferior little bitch about it. That never ends well for the inferior little bitch.
This is AV club. If you quote things like evidence or laws you are “defending a rapist” or something. I apparently do it regularly when I point out you need to prove someone did something before they are guilty.
Nah it’s still hilarious.
If you told me Kevin Spacey was personally bankrolling all these shitty F-list production houses featuring nobody you’ve heard of in hopes of creating the illusion that he was still a movie star, not only would I find it plausible, I wouldn’t have any immediate way to prove you wrong.
Is he really back or just being sent to Geezer Teaser purgatory?
Guess it depends how you define it. Is Louis CK “back”? He has to distribute all his stuff on his own now, no studio, etc. will touch him. And his most recent movie will likely never see the light of day.Yet he did also recently win a grammy right? So does that mean he was never cancelled? Or does it mean that, if you have a large enough fan base, the internet and social media can be used to circumvent cancellation?Think of it like a writer who gets cancelled and no publishing companies will touch him, so he publishes his own work and still finds success. I’d argue the industry has cancelled him, but his fans have not.It’s like saying Gina Carano wasn’t cancelled because she is making movies. Yet she went from doing fast and furious and star wars to…daily wire movies lol.
It’s almost like “cancelled” has numerous different meanings and nobody bothers to specify which one they’re talking about when they say that “cancel culture does/doesn’t exist”
Nah, that can’t be right.
From what I understand “cancel culture” doesn’t exist because none of these people are homeless and starving to death.
Mel Gibson is the line.
Mel Gibson said things about Jews. Cardi B admitted to drugging and robbing men yet suffered no consequences. I wonder what a jewish person would rather have happen: someone call them slurs or someone drug and rob them.
This…doesn’t prove cancel culture doesn’t exist.
“Fallaize, who says he ‘grew up’ watching Spacey’s films”And at least one other person grew up being raped by him, but I guess that makes no nevermind.
Proof they were raped?
Which person is claiming that? Rapp didn’t say it went as far as rape.
Oh sorry, he “sexually assaulted” at least one kid. Thanks for clarifying because it makes a big difference.
he “laid on top of the guy for like 10 second” Hardly “sexual assault”
The “guy” being a 14 year old child, but yes, please carry on defending this behavior.
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-over-alleged-racist-gesture-says-he-was-cracking-knuckles/2347414/Yup, cancel culture exists. Deal with it.
Haha it’s hilarious how that racist got fired for clearly making the OK white supremacy gesture. Love it.
There isn’t an “OK white supremacy gesture.”
Thanks for proving my point.
Man you must be sweating about some shit you did if you’re that freaked out over the fairy tale that is “cancel culture”
Haha i own your ass kid.
If you don’t want to see Kevin Spacey make money off of movies, don’t see them. That goes for any actor/director/etc. You can’t just wish people into oblivion. It won’t work and shouldn’t. Cancel culture is bullshit. Vote with your dollars and stop clutching pearls over people’s behavior. If Spacey, et al. commit a crime, then they should be prosecuted and punished and that may impact whether they work later. Awful people make art. Deal with it.
Hollywood is when movies.
Best comment.
…Now More than Ever!
Wow. Poor Laurie Metcalf
“Lauren Metcalfe” isn’t “Laurie Metcalf,” so that bullet is dodged.
It’s been that kind of week for me.
Yeah, his getting cast in this is in no way a plus for him. It is more of a “this is what your career has sunk to.
The funnier thing is, the only reason the director cast him was because otherwise is tiny film that would have gone by unnoticed will now get sites like this talking about it. In other words this whole article is a HUGE favor to the guy. Good Job!
No surprise. This is the same crowd that gave Will Smith a standing ovation after the slap, celebrates Woody Allen, and still gives awards to Roman Polanski.
Fallaize has no knowledge of Spacey’s private life and the scandals? Then how will he explain when moviegoers vote with their feet and his movie bombs?
Innocent until proven guilty. The court of public opinion has been swaying far too many cases. This is a law that protects you and I as well as every other American. I’m sorry that you are upset, but that doesn’t mean we get to say who does or doesn’t deserve a god-given right. That is for the law, the judges, perhaps jurors etc. to decide. If you can’t even write a piece that allows for people to decide for themselves their feelings on things, than your biased opinion overshadows any attempt you make at reporting “news”. All I see is a grown adult whining in the public sphere. It’s embarrassing. Do your job, dipstick. You’re lucky enough to HAVE a forum from which to be heard. Why would you spoil it with malice? Do you need attention? Other than scolding you like a child, I won’t give you the satisfaction. I’d respect you if you gave it to us straight. But you can’t. Or you won’t. Either way, you’re pathetic. I doubt what I say will cut deep (though death by a thousand cuts is an option) as it’s not my intention. I’m simply here to tell you that you have failed. You wrote a s#it piece and took someone’s money for it. Do you you even have an editor?
Spacey was found NOT GUILT in the Rapp case. and according to Rapp himself during the trial, Spacy “Laid on top of me, I said no, get off of me, and Spacey got off of me”
But that’s worth $40M because some guy laid on top of you 50 years ago? GTFO of here with that nonsense. That’s not “assault”
And now every guy Spacey made a pass at wants to claim “assault” because he’s famous and rich. Again, GTFO of here.
Until he’s CONVICTED, the guy deserves to have a life.
He can have a life. He just can’t have millions of dollars for being in movies.
Better to just avoid the term “cancel culture” altogether.
Consequences
for actions, perceived or otherwise, have always existed and they
always will. Often people avoid them by just behaving nicely. Doesn’t
always work, it’s a messy world, but
by-and-large if you start with behaving nice then usually people behave
nice in return.
Then you probably won’t get fired, people will want to work with you, and you won’t have to worry about getting “cancelled” much at all. Not difficult.