Kevin Spacey Doc Director on Why the Men Came Forward and Actor’s Response: “He Could Do a Bit More Soul-Searching”
In May 2022, when Katherine Haywood began making calls for a Channel 4 documentary she’d been brought on to direct and produce, it wasn’t long before she was “hearing stories of inappropriate behavior.”
Production on the “forensic” documentary Spacey Unmasked, diving into the allegations of sexual misconduct that have toppled Kevin Spacey’s career, started before his U.K. trial had been announced that same May — it even put a “brake” on things, Haywood reveals, as Channel 4 had to wait until after a verdict was reached. He was later acquitted of nine charges brought against him in London in July 2023, but Haywood and her team had found others, uninvolved in the trial, who wanted to tell their stories, too.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
“I set out to talk to as many people as I could and understand what the story is,” Haywood tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I tried to contact men and women, young and old… This took months, and I was hearing stories quite quickly of inappropriate behavior.”
The journey began with a man called Ruari, who wanted to talk about his experience with Spacey while working as an actor at London’s historic Old Vic theatre, when Spacey was its artistic director.
The documentary, which aired in the U.K. last week and is released in the U.S. on Monday, May 13, features 10 men, including Ruari, detailing the alleged abuse they faced at the hands of Spacey. The allegations — which the actor himself has vehemently denied — span five decades, ranging from a teenage Spacey at high school to the height of his House of Cards fame, as well as his time at the Old Vic.
“[I was in] regular contact with the Channel 4 lawyers,” Haywood said of the lengthy set-up for the doc. “‘What are we finding? How is that being corroborated?’ I can’t go into too much detail, but we definitely did a lot of work to make sure that we were confident that these men were telling their stories from a genuine place.”
Many of the victims in Haywood’s two-part documentary claim to have been starstruck by Spacey, bowled over by his promise to aid them in their careers, only to soon realize it was at the cost of exchanging alleged “sexual favors,” often while on set as they claim he “kidnapped” crewmembers to “run lines.”
Spacey has stated, in a tell-all interview with TV presenter Dan Wootton after the doc’s release in the U.K. last week, that his actions — if they did occur — may have been “simply embarrassing, but not criminal.”
The allegations include that the star pushed his groin into the face of an Old Vic worker while serving as the venue’s director and that he masturbated in front of an aspiring actor as they watched Saving Private Ryan in a public theater, before trying to move the victim’s hand to join in.
“I really find it fascinating that Kevin would come out and say, ‘Well, it’s not illegal,'” Haywood says. “Because if he watched the program, he would see that we also say, ‘It may well not be illegal.’ I’m not a judge or a jury. I can’t lay down the law and say whether it’s criminal or not… But it’s really painful. It’s really hurtful. It’s really damaging, and it’s not morally or ethically acceptable.”
Spacey maintains that if he was inappropriate, he wants to take “full responsibility” for that. He emphasizes that the London jury only deliberated for 45 minutes before acquitting him, and tries to combat some of the timeline presented in the documentary. Haywood tells THR that the interview with Wootton involves “a lot of grandstanding.”
“At the start [of the interview], he did seem to say that he’s personally apologized to lots of people. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But I certainly know he hasn’t apologized to the men in our film. I think that he could probably do a bit more soul-searching and think about his behavior,” she says.
Haywood’s doc touches on the deep shame the victims felt surrounding the alleged run-ins with the star, their guilt over the incidents interfering with their desire to speak out sooner. This is the key message of Spacey Unmasked, Haywood says: to give men a platform to shed that indignity. “They feel there’s a sense of smallness: ‘Who am I, this tiny ant that can fight this titan?’ They just did not feel that speaking out would make any difference; no one would believe them, Kevin would carry on with his career.”
Did the claims she heard during production shock Haywood? “I was quite surprised by the breadth of his behavior,” Haywood responds. “It’s not just a story about a very powerful man abusing their power against less powerful men, but it went right back to school.”
Spacey’s career flourished in the late ’90s — he picked up his second Academy Award for American Beauty in 1999, right in the center of the timeline depicted in Spacey Unmasked. Does Haywood think he can return to that kind of stardom? Spacey himself believes the claims against him are “a life sentence.”
Haywood responds: “He’s clearly a good actor, I loved him in House of Cards… But I was just so blown away by [the documentary contributors’] ability to have empathy. They almost feel sorry for Spacey. If Spacey can get inside their shoes, try and look at it from their perspective… Sure, go ahead and have a brilliant career.
“I just think that he needs to take a long, hard look of how he’s treating people,” she continues. “And if he can work through that, then brilliant. I think that’s what the men want. The men were like, ‘I don’t want to see him in jail. I just want it to stop.’ So, good on him. If he can do that, then I really would love to see him in some more shows.”
There was pushback from Spacey and his team on the short timeframe he was given by Channel 4 to respond to the claims put forward in the documentary. He wrote to his followers on X: “Over the last week, I have repeatedly requested that @Channel4 afford me more than 7 days to respond to allegations made against me dating back 48 years and provide me with sufficient details to investigate these matters. Channel 4 has refused on the basis that they feel that asking for a response in 7 days to new, anonymized and non-specific allegations is a ‘fair opportunity’ for me to refute any allegations made against me.”
He showed Wootton a letter dated April 22 before the U.K. release on May 6. Haywood tells THR that she thinks the timeframe was “fair” and that Spacey’s response — in an official capacity, as opposed to on X — came through on May 3.
Through his lawyers, Spacey said that he has been publicly exonerated and has been acquitted of every criminal charge against him in the U.S. and the U.K., said a Channel 4 representative. He added he strongly disagrees with the findings against him in the MRC arbitration and denies engaging in any sexual harassment or other wrongful conduct in connection with House of Cards. He acknowledged that he “participated in a pervasive on-set culture that was filled with sexual innuendos, jokes, and innocent horseplay, but never sexually harassed anyone.”
Last week, it was announced that Spacey will have to stand trial again, likely in 2025, over another sexual assault claim. The actor has denied the allegations.
Spacey Unmasked airs in the U.S. on Investigation Discovery and will also be available to stream on Max from Monday.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
Solve the daily Crossword
