Actor Kevin Spacey walked into a London courtroom on Wednesday to stand trial on charges he sexually assaulted four men some 20 years ago.
The actor was dressed in a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and pink tie. He was called out by his full name and asked if he was Kevin Spacey Fowler.
“It’s me,” he replied from behind a window in the dock.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen charges, including sexual assault, indecent assault and inciting a person to engage in sexual activity without their consent. He could face jail time if convicted.
The actor nodded and smiled at prospective jurors as judge Mark Wall told them they might know Spacey by name or seen his films.
More than twenty people entered the courtroom and the first 14 were seated without objection from the prosecution or the defence. Thirteen people were exempted.
Spacey stood with his hands clasped behind his back as nine men and five women, including two alternates, were sworn in as jurors to hear evidence in the case which is expected to last four weeks at Southwark Crown Court.
Opening statements are scheduled for Friday.
The actor, who is out on bail, arrived in court about two hours before the start of the trial.
Spacey believes an acquittal in the case could revive a career that has largely been on ice since sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against the two-time Oscar winner.
“There are people right now who are ready to hire me as soon as I’m cleared of these charges in London,” Spacey said in a rare interview published this month in the German magazine. Zeit. He also accused the media of having transformed him into a “monster”.
The charges involving men now in their 30s or 40s date from 2001 to 2013 – covering most of the decade he lived in the UK and was artistic director of the Old Vic Theater until 2015.
Spacey’s downfall came during the #MeToo (#MeToo) movement in the US when allegations led to him being dropped from Netflix’s political thriller House of Cards, where for five seasons he played lead character Frank Underwood, a power-hungry congressman who becomes president. It was also cut from the finished film All the Money in the World (All the money in the world) and scenes were redone with Christopher Plummer.
From the 1990s, Kevin Spacey became one of the most famous actors of his generation, starring in films such as Glengarry Glen Ross And LA Confidential (Los Angeles Prohibited). He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects (Convenience suspects) in 1995 and the Oscar for best actor for the film American Beauty (American beauty), from 1999.
After several years, he made his return to the cinema in 2022 in The Man Who Drew God by Italian director Franco Nero. He also played the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in the biopic Once Upon a Time in Croatia. He also appears in an American film which has not yet been released, Peter Five Eight.
In January, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Museum of Italian Cinema in Turin. He also taught a masterclass and presented a sold-out screening of American Beauty.
On this occasion, Spacey praised the organizers for “having forcefully defended artistic success”.