Kevin Spacey Announces Return to Cinema and Search for Love After 9 Years in "Hollywood Jail"

Kevin Spacey is convinced he is on the path to rebuilding his career. This comes just months after the actor managed to settle disputes with three men who had accused him of sexual assault.

The brilliant Hollywood career of the two-time Oscar winner collapsed in 2017 when he faced numerous allegations of misconduct, all of which the actor consistently denied. Later, in 2023, a London criminal court fully acquitted him of charges involving four men. And in March of this year, Spacey reached a settlement with three more plaintiffs who claimed they were abused between 2000 and 2015.

Appearing on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, the 66-year-old Spacey spoke in detail about feeling like a man finally stepping into freedom after a nine-year "imprisonment" in Hollywood, returning to cinema, and... still looking for love. "I feel far more welcomed. I feel like things are moving in exactly the direction we had hoped," the actor shared.

During the conversation, host Bill Maher candidly remarked: "I'm not going to lie, when it comes to scandals, I always look at the numbers. If the allegations come from one person, I have doubts, because I wasn't in that room. But here, there’s too much smoke for there not to be a fire."

To this, Spacey responded that while he did indeed "flirt with a lot of guys," the scale of the problem was vastly exaggerated. "There was no fire, certainly not a raging forest fire. It was a small kitchen fire that could have been put out with a regular fire extinguisher." "I was fiercely hiding my orientation, I didn't want anyone to know anything about me, and, of course, I thought I was so clever that nobody suspected a thing. There were so many stories about me, so much talk about me being gay, but I just hadn't come out. And instead of the gay community being understanding about it... I always felt like I was being attacked."

Maher agreed that Spacey "had to pay some price," but the American Beauty star has already paid a massive price with his reputation over nine years of exile.

"Now I feel less restricted than before. When people start hearing the facts and understanding exactly what we won in the courts, they look at the situation differently and think: perhaps nine years was enough," Spacey said.

Right now, the actor’s thoughts are focused on work and his personal life. "I don’t have a regular boyfriend, but I’m actively looking."

Legal Victories and Settled Disputes

The actor placed special emphasis on the fact that he has won "in every court where there was a jury." He once again accused Anthony Rapp (now 54) of "fabricating" the story that Spacey allegedly made inappropriate advances toward him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. In 2022, a New York jury found Spacey not liable.

As for the civil lawsuits in London from three men who worked with Spacey during his tenure as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre, the trial was set to begin in the High Court in London this October. However, on March 13, 2026, a judge ordered the proceedings to be stayed because the parties had reached a confidential out-of-court settlement. The terms of the deal remain undisclosed.