Kevin Spacey's Repugnant "Apology" for Alleged Child Abuse

Let me begin by stating that I believe Anthony Rapp and applaud him for his courage. It is never easy to process or speak about sexual assault, and especially not when the accused is someone who wields power in your personal or professional domain.

Before I analyze Kevin Spacey’s statement in response to the allegation that he sexually assaulted Anthony Rapp in 1986, I want to make something clear: Pedophilia has nothing to do with sexual orientation. The gender of the child a pedophile preys on is irrelevant. The ongoing conflation of criminals who molest boys with gayness is a serious problem, and Spacey has participated in perpetuating this damaging myth.

Rapp was 14 years old; Spacey was 26 years old. Since one party was not an adult, this was not a case of a man “making sexual advances,” as this situation is being characterized in the media. Fourteen-year-olds are not fair game for adults to hit on, and touching a minor is a serious crime.

Kevin Spacey’s response was a carefully crafted statement allowing him to avoid accountability and redirect the conversation. In so doing, he does not simply come out as gay but manages to throw the LGBTQIA+ community under the bus. I will explain how he does this later.

First, let us look at Spacey’s response to a Buzzfeed article accusing him of assaulting then 14-year-old Rapp:

Immediately, Spacey distances himself from his accuser, saying he has respect for him as an actor. Neither does he admit to having ever met Rapp in person nor does he indicate any respect for him as a person—just as an actor. So, he dehumanizes his accuser. He goes on to state that he was “beyond horrified” to hear Rapp’s account of what happened, as if it was a story about someone else. This is when he expressly begins to absolve himself from blame by highlighting that it was a long time ago and he has no recollection of it. This sets the stage for what is to be a disingenuous apology.

The actual apology part of this statement begins in a detached manner: “if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology.” This is worded deliberately to highlight the passage of time since the incident is alleged to have taken place and to cast doubt on Rapp’s story without actually contradicting him. Then comes the direct evasion of responsibility, where Spacey states that if this happened, it would have been “deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” The paragraph ends with Spacey once again highlighting that this happened a long time ago and refusing to shoulder the responsibility for causing the feelings to which he refers: “I am sorry for the feelings he described having carried with him all these years.”

The manner in which Spacey simultaneously confronts the allegation and avoids blame is disturbing, as is his cold, calculated tone. Undoubtedly, a skilled psychologist would have something to say about this.

First, I want to highlight this usage of time to absolve predators of guilt. Abusers and their apologists often use this tactic to discredit survivors: “This happened years ago; why are you bringing it up now?” It is as if time erases criminality. Further, because the memory is not always reliable, underscoring the passage of time can cast doubt on the survivor’s ability to recall events clearly. This tactic is especially harmful when the victim of the alleged crime is/was a minor. In a situation such as this, where the power imbalance is massive, questioning the credibility of the accuser reinforces their lack of agency and shields the accused from the allegation of the serious crime of child abuse. Essentially, this tactic is used to gaslight the accuser. Gaslighting is a form of abuse itself.

Second, Spacey’s decision to blame alcohol use to absolve himself merits discussion. It is always fascinating to me when people invoke substance use to rationalize wrongdoing, since alcohol is known to lower inhibitions. Therefore, when someone tries to blame drunkenness for their inappropriate behaviour, they are actually admitting that they have a certain predilection in the first place. This is interesting because Spacey never denies preying on 14-year-old Anthony Rapp. Instead, he blames the alcohol. But alcohol does not magically transform a person into a child molester. What Spacey does here is negate the considerable age difference between himself and Rapp, which is where he begins to drag the LGBTQIA+ community down with him by conflating pedophilia and homosexuality.

Now I come to the second paragraph, where Kevin Spacey doubles down on this conflation of pedophilia and homosexuality and decides to throw other queer people under the bus instead of addressing his alleged criminality. The first sentence is dismissive and carries on this conflation. Addressing child molestation should never be a means to segue into a discussion about same-sex attraction. These two things are not related. For instance, many try to blame homosexuality for the crimes of abusive priests when, in fact, it is not the vow of celibacy that causes child abuse but the nature of the job, which grants authority and allows access to children, which would appeal to pedophiles. The gender of the children is not the point; the crime of child abuse is the point. What Spacey does here is play into the damaging stereotype of the repressed gay man who acts out by molesting children.

Next, Spacey references stories that have circulated about him. Whether he is referring to stories about relationships with men or crimes committed against minors is anybody’s guess; in any case, he has already conflated the two issues.

Then he brings up the fact that he has had relationships with both women and men. I was perplexed as to why he felt the need to mention this. What follows this adds to the harm he has chosen to do to the queer community in this statement. After alluding to bisexuality, he erases it and says that he “now choose[s] to live as a gay man.” The idea that one can choose to be gay continues to be used to demonize homosexuals and brand queer people as deviants. The decision to bring up a history of dating women and men in this context is also problematic because it invalidates non-binary sexuality. Bisexual erasure is common and poses an ongoing problem for those who exist anywhere between the two ends of the sexuality spectrum. That Kevin Spacey would both echo the arguments used by queer-antagonistic bigots and feed into the stigma attached to bi+ identities is alarming. It is as if he wants to throw as many people under the bus as possible.

The last sentence once again plays on the aforementioned stereotypes by suggesting that Spacey’s attraction to men would account for him preying on a teenage boy. This cannot be said enough: Gayness cannot be used to rationalize pedophilia. Yet it is as if Spacey is doing just that to address Rapp’s allegation.

Kevin Spacey’s entire statement is a deflection. He first deflects from the accusation of sexual assault against a minor by hiding behind alcohol consumption and then further deflects using homosexuality. This statement is a clever manipulation. The text evinces an awareness that the media would be distracted if Spacey threw them the bone they have long waited for: confirming that he is gay. It is offensive to survivors of child abuse including Anthony Rapp, to survivors of other forms of sexual assault, and to the LGBTQIA+ community, but to queer men in particular, who continue to battle stereotypes that pathologize them and associate them with sexual predation and criminality.