‘Won in every court’: Kevin Spacey claims Hollywood warming up again after sexual assault allegations and exile

After years away from the spotlight and a career largely frozen out of Hollywood, Kevin Spacey says he is starting to feel a shift in how he is being perceived and even a possible path back into the industry.

The Oscar-winning actor has described a renewed sense of optimism about his future in entertainment, saying he now feels “welcomed” again after years of legal scrutiny and sexual misconduct allegations that effectively derailed his career.

'Less in show business jail'

Speaking on comedian Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, Spacey talked about the public accusations and the long-running debate surrounding his name, including Maher’s remark that there was “too much smoke to be no fire.”

Spacey pushed back on the framing of the allegations, pointing to court outcomes and insisting the situation has been mischaracterised over time. He said he has “won in every court we’ve gone into with a jury” and added, “I feel much more welcomed, and I think that things are moving in the direction that we hoped they were moving in… There are certain cases where part of something is true, but it’s been rethought, it’s been redesigned, or it’s been entirely made up..."

He also addressed the broader perception of the allegations, saying he never claimed there was “no fire,” but that “it just wasn’t a raging forest fire”. Spacey described it instead as a “small kitchen fire that could have been put out with an extinguisher."

'Feels like home again'

Looking ahead, the actor suggested Hollywood is beginning to open up to him once more. “Well, I feel less in (show business) jail than I did… When people actually start to hear the facts, understand what we won in courts, I think people now look at this and think, maybe nine years has been enough. If I had been a sports figure I would have been benched for seven games. If you’re hitting home runs, they want you on the field.”

The comments come after years in which Spacey was effectively sidelined from major studio projects following the emergence of allegations in 2017.

In 2017, sexual misconduct allegations had surfaced. At that time, Kevin addressed allegations, saying that he did not remember the incident, but offered his apologies.

Following the incident, the actor was fired from Netflix’s House of Cards and from All The Money In The World, which was already filmed, and replaced by Christopher Plummer with reshoots of Kevin’s scenes.