Gabriel Byrne Says Kevin Spacey’s “Inappropriate Sexual Behavior” Halted Production On ‘The Usual Suspects’
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Actor Gabriel Byrne has recently come forward about Kevin Spacey and his “inappropriate sexual behavior” which caused production to shut down on the film The Usual Suspects.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the Golden Globe-winning actor says of Spacey: “I did not know honestly then the extent of his violence.” He adds, “I mean, he was kind of a joke in that people would say, ‘That’s Kevin,’ but nobody really understood the depth of his predations. It was only years later that we began to understand that [filming] was closed down for a particular reason and that was because of inappropriate sexual behavior by Spacey.”
The film went on to win Spacey an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as well as another for Best Screenplay. The film’s director, Bryan Singer, has been dealing with issues of his own as of late. He recently was fired from the upcoming Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.
The downward spiral of Spacey started when Anthony Rapp accused him of sexual assault when he was 14-years-old. He has since been dropped from many projects including House of Cards Netflix confirmed today that its popular political drama will have a sixth and final season without Spacey. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said the show will restart production next year, with Robin Wright in the lead.
In the interview with The Sunday Times, Byrne also recalls working with Harvey Weinstein, who is arguably the figure who opened the floodgates of sexual harassment allegations in Hollywood. Byrne said that Spacey’s behavior had a similar’element of absolute abuse of power’ that he saw in Weinstein.
While working with Weinstein on the 1991 film Into The West, he met his soon-to-be-wife Ellen Barkin. The experience of making the film has since been ruined for Byrne since finding out about Weinstein sexually harassing his then-assistant Laura Madden during filming.
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