I wrote this piece for my University's radio station, but I obviously had to cut it down. So I thought I'd post it on here instead!



On Monday, Buzzfeed released an interview they had conducted with actor Anthony Rapp (Rent) who made allegations of an incident of sexual assault that Kevin Spacey committed against him in 1986.
 
At the time, Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. The report states that Spacey befriended Rapp whilst they were in Broadway together. Spacey invited Rapp to his home for a party and at the end of the night, whilst extremely intoxicated, “picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold … And then he lays down on top of me.”
 
“He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp said in the interview. “I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”
 
Rapp, now 46, said that he has lived with distress over the event as he watched Spacey’s career ‘blossom’ since that night. He said that the stream of women coming forward about their sexual abuse in Hollywood encouraged him to tell this story.
 
Upon hearing these allegations, Spacey released a statement on Twitter, however it was not widely accepted. In his statement, he said he was “beyond horrified” but “do not remember the encounter” however if it did happen how Rapp says then “I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour”.
 
He followed this by writing, “This story has now encouraged me to address other things about my life … I choose now to live as a gay man.”
 
This was met with a lot of criticism by many, including a lot of celebrities within the LGBT+ community. Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) called the statement “calculated manipulation” and George Takei (Star Trek: Starfleet Command) called it a “deflection” from the allegations and “an abuse of power, not sexuality”.
 
This has caused other people to come forward with accusations against Spacey. Actor Robert Cavazos (Allegiance of Power) claims that Spacey tried to grope him against his will at a bar in London’s Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey was artistic director from 2004-2015. Cavazos wrote on Facebook, "It was more common for this guy, when he was in the bar of this theatre, grabbing whoever caught his attention. I didn't stand for it, but I know some people who were afraid to stop it.”
 
Cavazos, and several others, also said that Spacey “routinely preyed” on young male actors whilst working at the theatre.
 
In response to this, the Old Vic has released a statement saying that it has “deep dismay” to hear about these findings and wants to remind the public that "inappropriate behaviour by anyone working at The Old Vic is completely unacceptable." They have set up a confidential complaints process for anyone connected to the theatre who may have abused their power to commit any sexual assault.
 
Filmmaker Tony Montana has also come forward claiming that Spacey came up to him in an LA bar and groped him before following him to the bathroom to try and force himself upon Montana, who was fortunately able to shake him off.
 
One of the latest allegations comes from a British barman, Daniel Beal, who claims that, whilst he was on a cigarette break, Spacey approached him, exposed himself, and then gave Beal a £5,000 Swiss watch to keep him quiet.
 
An anonymous man has also come out saying that he once woke up with Spacey lying on top of him, however he was able to quickly diffuse the situation.
 
Spacey’s brother, Randall Fowler, has come out saying that this behaviour is an effect from years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their neo-Nazi father. Fowler recalls Nazi memorabilia, being pulled out of Cub Scouts due to a Jewish leader, and being frequently whipped and raped. He claims that to avoid the whippings Spacey closed off his emotions.
 
Due to these reports, Netflix has revealed that they are halting production for Spacey’s show House of Cards “until further notice”. Netflix and Media Rights Capital (MRC) released this statement: "MRC and Netflix have decided to suspend production on House of Cards season six, until further notice, to give us time to review the current situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew."
 
Spacey has also had a special Emmy award revoked that he was meant to receive next month in New York.
 
All of this comes after the allegations against Harvey Weinstein at the beginning of October started the Twitter campaign #metoo. The hashtag was introduced by Alyssa Milano, an avid campaigner for women’s rights and the rights and safety of victims of sexual assault. The campaign has been welcomed by Twitter users across the world with both women and men revealing their shocking encounters with sexual abuse throughout their lives, most of them starting in their teenage years. Although the hashtag started for women, men have embraced it and many women support their involvement with the campaign. Cortney Anne Budney posted on Facebook: "Me too for men too. Let's not forget the men and boys. Their "me too"s are equally important and often quite hidden."

Life. It’s a funny thing. I’m sure none of you want to talk about life right now. Existential crises and all that.

The thing I’ve realised though is that we are all so attached to how we conduct ourselves throughout our lives. I get it, you only get one life. But it doesn’t matter how we act, we all think we are wasting our life – whether by partying and drinking, working hard to achieve what we want, going out on adventures. We all reach one point in our lives when we take a step back and ask: ‘Am I wasting my time?’

This is a big problem nowadays. I think it’s mostly to do with how science is evolving and we are finding out where we came from and where we are probably going in this massive universe we live in. I mean, people we learn about in history always seemed to love their lives because they were blissfully unaware of how small they actually were in the scheme of things.

I guess it would be nice to be blissfully unaware. But then, where’s the fun in that? One big thing that excites me about my life is learning and growing through knowledge. In a lot of ways, I feel sorry for the people that came before us because they didn’t know anything whilst thinking they knew everything. This probably adds to the attitude we have presently. We know there is so much more out there to learn about but we can’t experience it because our science is developed enough to take us out beyond our world.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to head out into the stars and find out what exactly the universe has to offer us. But at the same time, that would give me less time to appreciate Earth. We have an amazing planet full of so many cultures, colours, languages and experiences. I want to be around for all of them. I want to travel and discover the world we live on. It’s not enough just hearing about it and reading books. I want to be there.
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We do only have one life to experience everything we want. For different people that’s different things. That why I’m at University – for a new experience with new people. A new adventure. It’s the same reason I want to travel the world, want to become a journalist, want to have a family. I want my life to be peaceful and exciting. Because life is a funny thing. But it’s wonderful.