Kevin Spacey revived his role as “House of Cards” antihero Frank Underwood to issue a Christmas Eve statement responding indirectly to the sexual misconduct accusations that derailed Spacey’s career last year.
The statement came within moments of the Boston Globe reporting Monday that Spacey faces a felony charge accusing him of sexually assaulting the teenage son of former Boston news anchor Heather Unruh at a Nantucket bar in July 2016.
Spacey, one of the most prominent men to lose their careers to #MeToo movement, was killed off from the Netflix show and excised from the film “All the Money in the World” after numerous men accused him of predatory behavior.
“You trusted me even though you knew you shouldn’t,” Spacey says in the video, shot as he putters around a kitchen. “So we’re not done, no matter what anyone says. And besides, I know what you want. You want me back.”
Here is Spacey’s Underwood video:
Let Me Be Frank https://t.co/OzVGsX6Xbz
— Kevin Spacey (@KevinSpacey) December 24, 2018
The video — which draws meta parallels between Spacey’s downfall and Underwood’s — is notable for the lack of remorse and defiant tone. If it is an attempt at a comeback, is one of the most brazen — and potentially tone-deaf — since the start of #MeToo.
Spacey continues, looking at the camera in the style of his “House of Cards” character, who routinely broke the fourth wall to address viewers directly.
“Of course, some believe everything and have just been waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all,” he says. “They’re just dying to hear me say that everything is true and I got what I deserved. Wouldn’t that be easy?”
He asks: “You wouldn’t believe the worst without evidence, would you? You wouldn’t rush to judgment without facts, would you? Did you? No not you. You’re smarter than that.”
He also says he received “impeachment without a trial.”
Spacey shared the video in his first tweet since October 2017, when he tweeted in response to a BuzzFeed story in which actor Anthony Rapp said a drunk Spacey tried to sexually assault him when he was underage.
In his response to the Rapp accusations, Spacey was widely criticized for choosing to come out as gay at the same time he denied wrongdoing. GLAAD said in a statement that “coming out stories should not be used to deflect from allegations of sexual assault.”
The Rapp accusation was the beginning of many more accusations against Spacey, including the one that led to the criminal charge the Boston Globe reported on Monday.
More than a dozen other men came forward to accuse Spacey of sexual misconduct ranging sexual harassment to assault to attempted rape.
In November 2017, Spacey’s representatives said he was “taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment.”
In September of this year, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to charge Spacey over accusations that he sexually assaulted an acquaintance in 1992, citing an expired statute of limitations.
Spacey’s most recent film, “Billionaire Boys Club,” filmed before the accusations, bombed at the box office, with a $618 opening weekend — Spacey’s career low.