Guy Pearce confessed he found it ‘tough’ to talk about his experiences with his L.A. Confidential co-star Kevin Spacey, in a shock resurfaced interview.
The 57-year-old Memento star, who earlier this week spoke out against Spacey as the actor faces a civil sexual abuse claim, starred alongside the US actor in his 1997 breakthrough role.
In a 2018 interview with Andrew Denton, Pearce spoke out about his time working with Spacey and claimed the New Jersey-born actor was ‘handsy’.
‘Tough one to talk about at the moment. Amazing, incredible actor. Slightly difficult time with Kevin, yeah. He’s a handsy guy,’ Pearce said.
Pearce appears to still hold a negative view towards Spacey – who was first publicly accused on sexual misconduct in 2017 – and recently admitted he was ‘scared’ of the actor while working alongside him.
Spacey was subsequently cleared of all charges in a US court of law.
Guy Pearce confessed he found it ‘tough’ to talk about his experiences with his L.A. Confidential co-star Kevin Spacey, in a shock resurfaced interview
Speaking on the Awards Chatter podcast, Pearce revealed: ‘I was scared of Kevin, he’s quite aggressive, extremely charming… holds a room remarkably. I was young and susceptible.’
He added he felt more comfortable around him when his co-star and fellow Aussie Simon Baker (formerly Denny) was on set.
‘He [Spacey] would focus on Denny because he’s much better looking than me,’ Guy explained.
Spacey refuted Pearce’s more recent claims in a scathing video posted to social media and told the actor: ‘I’ve now read the comments you made about me and while I would have preferred not to have to play this out in the media, you obviously have your own reasons for wanting to do exactly that.
‘You really want to know what my response is? Grow up. Did you also, by the way, tell the press that a year after we shot L.A. Confidential, you flew to Savannah, Georgia, while I was shooting Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, to spend time with me?
‘I mean, did you tell the press that, too? Or does that not fit into the victim narrative you have going?’
The thriller, based on the novel by James Ellroy, starred Pearce and Russell Crowe in the lead roles, who were relatively unknown at the time, alongside Spacey.
In 2023, Spacey was cleared of sexual assault charges from his stint as artistic director at the Old Vic theatre, spanning from 2005 to 2013.
The 57-year-old Memento star, who earlier this week spoke out against Spacey as the actor faces a civil sexual abuse claim , starred alongside the US actor in his 1997 breakthrough role
However, Spacey refuted Pearce’s claims in a scathing video posted to social media
However last week he was hit with another sexual abuse claim, court records show – 18 months after he was cleared of a series of criminal charges.
Ruari Cannon is suing Kevin at the High Court, as well as two organisations connected to the Old Vic Theatre in London.
Dushal Mehta, of law firm Fieldfisher, confirmed he had issued a claim on behalf of Mr Cannon, and also said that he had waived his anonymity in the claim.
No details of the allegations involved are currently available.
Spacey was previously acquitted in criminal proceedings of several sexual offences alleged by four men between 2001 and 2013.
One of the men, who cannot be identified, has also sued Mr Spacey over his claims he was sexually assaulted by the actor and suffered ‘psychiatric damage’, which the actor denies.
The actor has denied all allegations of inappropriate behaviour and criminal wrongdoing.
In an interview with former GB News presenter Dan Wootton last year, he said: ‘I take full responsibility for my past behaviour and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologise to anyone who’s made up stuff about me.’
