Kevin Spacey compared his own career collapse to the victims of the Hollywood black list in the middle of the 20th century Tuesday when he accepted a prize at the Cannes Festival, where the Gala Better World Fund honored the Oscar’s double winner of the prize for excellence in cinema and television.
“I would like to congratulate [Better World Fund founder Manuel Collas de La Roche] For the decision to invite me here this evening to accept this price, “said the actor” House of Cards “.” Who would never have thought that honor someone who was exempt in each courtroom in which he entered would be considered a courageous idea. But here we are.
The Better World Fund is an organization that says that it has “gathered celebrities, artists and leaders around the world, fueled by the desire to positively influence the future of our society”. It is not linked to the festival.
Spacey has been accused of several cases of sexual misconduct in recent years, but has not been deemed responsible in a civil trial in New York in 2022 and acquitted criminal charges in 2023 in London. He has not yet won a major studio role since then, but is working again in independent and international films.
In his remarks, Spacey compared himself to Dalton Trumbo, who was put on black list in communist fear of 1947-1960.
“It was very, very long ago, but we have to think about the hindsight that [Kirk Douglas] Received after making the courageous decision to defend his colleague, twice the victorious screenwriter of the Oscars Dalton Trumbo… He could not find a job in Hollywood for 13 years. »»
Spacey noted that Douglas had put his neck for Trumbo in 1960, despite the threats that his career would be ruined.
“”[Douglas] Said this: “It is easier for us the actors to play heroes on the screen,” continued Spacey. “We can fight the bad guys and defend justice. But in real life, the choices are not always so clear. There are times when we must defend the director. I have learned a lot from history – he often repeats himself. The blacklist was a terrible period in our history so that it does not happen again. »»
Hundreds of Hollywood professionals have ransacked their careers on the accusations of communist trends – many of them are false.
“Today, we are again at the intersection of uncertainty and fear in the cinema sector and beyond,” said Spacey, appointing Tim Doyle, the producer of “Last Man Standing” punishable by the WGAW for an image of lynching which he published during the Strike of Writers 2023.
“Because the writers guild decided to send a censorship of him to the 17,000 guild members, predictablely, Tim has not been able to work since,” said Spacey. “No studio will touch him because of a joke he published. It took a friend of Tim’s, a comedy writer named Rob Ulin to try to make the guild of writers reverse their censorship.”
Spacey said history is repeated – “but only if we allow it.”
“Two weeks ago, the guild of writers in a vote with all their members reversed their Tim censorship and at the same time, Manuel invited me here to accept this price!”
Asked by a journalist on the red carpet if it was the start of a return, Spacey replied: “Well, I’m happy to work – I’ll tell you that!”
