“Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp on Sunday claimed that Kevin Spacey “tried to seduce” him decades ago when he was a 14-year-old actor appearing on Broadway.
In an interview with BuzzFeed published Sunday, Rapp claimed that a then-26-year-old Spacey invited him to a party at the older actor’s apartment in 1986, placed him on his bed, climbed on top of him and made a sexual advance before the younger actor was able to “squirm” away.
On Sunday night, Spacey said on his Twitter account, “I honestly do not remember the encounter … but if I did behave as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
— Kevin Spacey (@KevinSpacey) October 30, 2017
Rapp said that he attended a party at Spacey’s apartment when both were appearing on Broadway, Rapp in a production of “Precious Sons” with Ed Harris and Spacey in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” with Jack Lemmon.
At the end of the evening, Rapp said he found himself alone in Spacey’s bedroom. “He picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold,” Rapp told BuzzFeed. “But I don’t, like, squirm away initially, because I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’”
“He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp said. “I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”
Rapp said that Spacey laid on top of him on the bed, “was pressing into” him, then tightened his grip on Rapp before the younger actor was able to “squirm” away and eventually leave the apartment.
“The older I get, and the more I know, I feel very fortunate that something worse didn’t happen,” Rapp told BuzzFeed.
In the wake of the sexual misconduct charges leveled at leading industry figures like Harvey Weinstein and director James Toback, Rapp said he felt emboldened to share his own experience with Spacey, who went on to become a two-time Oscar winner and currently stars in the Netflix hit “House of Cards.”
“Part of what allowed the Harvey situation to occur was that there was this witting and unwitting conspiracy of silence,” said Rapp, who appeared in the 1987 movie “Adventures in Babysitting” and the original Broadway production of “Rent.” “The only way these things can continue is if there’s no attention being paid to it, if it’s getting forgotten.”