Kevin Spacey, who has returned to Israel to perform in a new show, sat down on Tuesday night for an interview with Elad Simchayoff on the Keshet Channel 12 news broadcast, and spoke candidly about the sexual harassment scandal that derailed his acting career and why he finds inspiration in Israel.
Spacey, who will perform his live show, Songs & Stories, in which he will sing standards with a jazz accompaniment and share personal stories, on November 19 at Hangar 11 in Tel Aviv, showed Simchayoff a ring he was wearing that his manager gave him, engraved with Hebrew words that mean, “This, too, shall pass.” He admitted, “I messed something up. I’m trying to make amends.”
Two-time Oscar winner Spacey reiterated what he has said in previous interviews about the sexual harassment allegations that derailed his career eight years ago. Essentially, he conceded that he has behaved badly in the past but stressed that he has been acquitted of accusations of sexual harassment in criminal courts, although there are still civil cases pending against him. As a result of the scandal, he was written out of the hit Netflix series, House of Cards, and replaced by another actor in the Ridley Scott film, All the Money in the World.
Asked whether he felt the whole scandal was behind him, he said, “Well, it’s definitely in my rear view mirror, absolutely. Really. I think that, you know, I always tried to be a decent human being who loved working with people… Now I’m at a place where I’ve got nothing to hide.”
Performing in Israel is very meaningful to him. “Israel has meant a lot to me over a long period of time. I first came to Israel in 1986. Last year we were there, and it was… it was a very emotional time. We toured many of the sites that were attacked on October 7. We met a lot of the citizens who were directly involved. We listened to their stories, and I’ll never forget that experience.”
He spoke about a workshop he did with 60 young acting students in Tel Aviv and said even though he does not speak Hebrew and did not understand their monologues, he was impressed by their resilience, saying, “I felt that I could learn a lot about resilience from Israelis.”
Protests against his shows in Greece and Tel Aviv
When it was announced that he would be doing shows in Israel and Greece, there were protests against him in Greece, with protesters demanding he cancel his Tel Aviv show.
“I don’t believe that a dialogue should be silenced. I’m not for silencing anyone.
We don’t respond well to ultimatums. And I don’t believe that citizens of a country should be punished because of something that’s happening within their country.
I think that we just don’t respond well to that. And so rather than canceling Israel, we canceled that other city,” he said.
Asked whether the story he tells in his show has a happy ending, he said, “Look, I think that one of the things I admire about Israelis is that the people are always looking forward.
And so I’m not looking at endings, I’m looking at beginnings.”