Kevin Spacey Returns to the Stage at Event Covering Cancel Culture - Vanity Fair

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The disgraced actor who was recently acquitted of sexual assault performed a scene from Timon of Athens at a lecture featuring “what Shakespeare can teach us about cancel culture.”

By Chris Murphy

October 18, 2023

Like it or not, Kevin Spacey is plotting his comeback. Per The Guardian, the disgraced two-time Oscar winner returned to the stage to perform a Shakespeare scene at an event addressing cancel culture, marking his first performance since being cleared of sexual assault in the UK.

At the Sheldonian Theatre at the University of Oxford, Spacey performed a five-minute scene from Timon of Athens during a lecture held in memory of the late conservative philosopher Roger Scruton. British conservative columnist Douglas Murray invited Spacey to perform at the lecture, which covered “what Shakespeare can teach us about cancel culture,” and delivered remarks before the Oscar winner took the stage. After the performance, Spacey received a standing ovation from the audience.

The performance occurred just days after it was reported that the Prince Charles Cinema in London had rescinded its offer to host the premiere of Spacey’s latest film, Control. While Spacey doesn’t physically appear in Control, he provides the voice of a villain who remotely hijacks a self-driving car. After learning of Spacey’s role in the film, cinema head Greg Lynn wrote an email to one of the project’s producers, Lauren Metcalfe, with excerpts published in The Telegraph: “Last night it came to our attention that your film features Kevin Spacey, in particular his first film since the court case. My staff as well as I are horrified that we are being mentioned in the same breath as his new film for the premiere.”

In July, Spacey was found not guilty of sexually assaulting four men between the years of 2001 and 2013, a period during which he was serving as artistic director of the Old Vic. Spacey faced nine charges, including seven counts of sexual assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The trial lasted four weeks, and the most serious charge carried a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The acquittal followed a US court ruling from 2022 that dismissed separate sexual allegations in a civil case.

Spacey has been cast out of mainstream Hollywood ever since 2017, when Broadway actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making a sexual advance toward him at a house party in 1986, when Rapp was just 14. (Spacey released a statement apologizing to Rapp, but maintained that he had no memory of the alleged interaction taking place.) After the allegation came to light, Spacey was cut out of the film All the Money in the World and replaced with the late Christopher Plummer. He’s appeared in independent films since then, and he received the Stella della Mole Award at Italy’s National Museum of Cinema in Turin earlier this year.