Dame Judi Dench is defending her “good friend” Kevin Spacey and doesn’t agree with the fact that he was cut from “All the Money in the World” due to sexual misconduct allegations against him.
“I can’t approve, in any way, of the fact — whatever he has done — that you then start to cut him out of films,” Dench said at a film festival in Spain, according to the BBC. Christopher Plummer reshot the scenes in which Spacey formerly starred as John Paul Getty.
“Are we to go back throughout history now and anyone who has misbehaved in any way, or has broken the law, or has committed some kind of offense, are they always going to be cut out?” she asked. “Are we going to exclude them from our history? I don’t know about any of the conditions of it, but nevertheless I think he is, and was, a most wonderful actor … and a good friend.”
Dench also recalled a time when Spacey was an “inestimable comfort” when she filmed 2001’s “The Shipping News” with the actor and her husband had died. “He cheered me up and kept and kept going.”
Most recently, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office decided that Spacey wouldn’t face charges stemming from accusations that he sexually assaulted an acquaintance in 1992 due to the statute of limitations. In August, the district attorney’s office announced that it was looking into a second sexual assault case against Spacey, following an initial case presented to the office in April.
In November 2017, Spacey was accused of assaulting “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp when Rapp was 14. Since then, Spacey’s charitable foundation has shut down operations, and London’s Old Vic Theatre, which Spacey served at as artistic director, opened a confidential hotline for anyone who says they were abused by Spacey to report their incidents.
Multiple other men have since accused him of sexual assault and misconduct during the #MeToo movement. He was fired from his lead role on “House of Cards” and his most recent film, “Billionaire Boys Club,” bombed at the box office, with a $618 opening weekend — Spacey’s career low. Spacey responded to Rapp’s account but has since remained silent over the other accusations.
According to Variety, Dench also spoke about the Time’s Up and the #MeToo movement, calling it an “extraordinary moment of change.”
“And there are many more parts for women, which is very good indeed, and long may that go on,” she added.