Guy Pearce, the actor Oscar-nominated for his role in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, has opened up about his experiences when working with Kevin Spacey on 1997 film LA Confidential.
Pearce had previously been oblique about his time with Spacey, who has been dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct, which Spacey has always denied, calling him “a handsy guy” in 2018. But speaking on Hollywood Reporter’s podcast Awards Chatter, the actor said he was now attempting to be franker about his co-star’s alleged behaviour.
“I just try to be more honest about it now and call it for what it is,” said Pearce, saying that he “broke down and sobbed” once he achieved more clarity on what had happened.
But Pearce sought to minimise his distress compared with that of others who allegedly had more troubling experiences, saying: “Even though I probably was a victim to a degree, I was certainly not a victim by any means to the extent that other people have been to sexual predators.”
He continued: “But I did that thing that you do where you brush it off and go, ‘Ah, that’s nothing. Ah, no, that’s nothing.’ And I did that for five months. And, really, I was sort of scared of Kevin because he’s quite an aggressive man. He’s extremely charming and brilliant at what he does – really impressive, etc. He holds a room remarkably. But I was young and susceptible, and he targeted me, no question.”
Pearce said that through the film’s production in Hollywood, the only moments in which he felt “safe” were when Spacey’s attention was focused on another actor, Simon Baker.
Once “things came to light in 2017”, said Pearce, he reassessed his times with Spacey and raised them with him, saying he subsequently “had a couple of confrontations with Kevin” that “got ugly”.
Pearce’s rethink was precipitated by the accusations, made by the actor Anthony Rapp, that Spacey made sexual advances at a party in New York in 1986 when he was 14. Numerous other accusations followed.
“I heard these stories about Kevin, sort of officially as news stories,” said Pearce. “And I was in London working on something, and I heard [the reports] and I broke down and sobbed, and I couldn’t stop. I think it really sort of dawned on me the impact that had occurred and how I sort of brushed it off and how I had sort of either shelved it or blocked it out, or whatever. That was a really incredible wake-up call.”
Of his appearance on an Australian talk show shortly afterwards, Pearce said: “I just blurted it all out. And of course then it all hit the press. I’m sort of in that weird position of going, ‘I don’t want all the focus on this. I don’t want it. But at the same time I don’t want him to get away with what he gets away with.’” He added, “I just try to be more honest about it now and call it for what it is.”
Spacey was legally cleared of misconduct and, respectively, sexual assault, in separate trials in the US and the UK and successfully defended himself against a lawsuit brought by Rapp.
Speaking last May on NewsNation, Spacey said he believed the #MeToo movement had “swung very, very far in the direction of unfairness”.
“I’m trying to show that I’ve listened,” he said. “I’ve learned. I’ve got the memo. I feel very strongly that whatever mistakes I’ve made in my life, that I paid a price.”
Since the allegations, Spacey has struggled to secure major roles on screen or stage. He voiced an evil GPS in the thriller Control, whose gala premiere was cancelled by the Prince Charles Cinema in London in 2023, and plays a character called The Devil in upcoming Italian thriller The Contract.
