Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault trial begins in London

LONDON –

Jurors who will decide the fate of actor Kevin Spacey were sworn in in a London court on Wednesday, as the Oscar winner is accused of sexually assaulting four men 20 years ago.

The outcome of the trial could send Spacey to prison or revive his career.

The two-time Academy Award winner was dressed in a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and pink tie as he confidently stepped into court and was called by his full name. He was asked if he was Kevin Spacey Fowler.

“That’s me,” he said, standing behind a window on the dock.

Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen charges, including assault, indecent assault and solicitation of penetrative sexual activity without consent.

“I’m sure the defendant will be pleased to know that many of you will know his name or have seen his films,” Judge Mark Wall said as Spacey nodded and smiled at the would-be jurors standing between the dock and two dozen journalists who made notes. .

The first 14 jurors, including two alternates, who were named, sat without objection from the prosecution or the defense. The remaining 13 were excused.

The judges were dressed in a mix of business and casual attire. Two women wore dresses and two men wore suits and ties. A man wore a black denim jacket and a bearded man had a weathered Superman T-shirt stretched over his stomach.

Spacey stood with his hands clasped behind his back as the nine men and five women were sworn in as jurors to hear evidence in the case expected to last four weeks at Southwark Crown Court.

Opening statements are scheduled for Friday.

Spacey, who is out on bail and has homes in London and the US, arrived at the court with his manager, Evan Lowenstein, by taxi about two hours before the trial was due to begin. He smiled and waved as he passed photographers and video journalists.

Spacey has said an acquittal in the case could jump-start a career that has largely been on ice since allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against the star who won his first Academy Award for a supporting role in “The Usual Suspects”. in 1995.

“There are people right now who are ready to hire me once I’m cleared of these charges in London,” Spacey said in a rare interview published this month in Germany’s Zeit magazine. He said the media had turned him into a “monster.”

The charges against men in their 30s and 40s date from 2001 to 2013 – most of the decade in which he lived in Britain and was Artistic Director of the Old Vic Theater until 2015.

Spacey’s demise came amid the .MeToo movement in the United States, when allegations led to him being written off the Netflix political thriller “House of Cards,” where he played the lead character Frank Underwood, a ruthless and corrupt congressman who becomes president. He was cut from the finished film “All the Money in the World” and the scenes were reshot with Christopher Plummer.

Spacey became one of the most celebrated actors of his generation in the 1990s, starring in films such as ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ and ‘LA Confidential’. He won his second Oscar for Best Actor in the 1999 film American Beauty.

Spacey recently had his first movie role in years, appearing in 2022 in Italian director Franco Nero’s “The Man Who Drew God” and playing the late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman in the biopic “Once Upon a Time in Croatia.” He also stars in the unreleased American movie ‘Peter Five Eight’.

The Italian National Film Museum in Turin presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award in January. He also gave a masterclass and introduced a sold-out screening of “American Beauty”, which was billed as Spacey’s first speaking engagement in five years.

Spacey praised the organizers for “strongly championing artistic achievement” and for having “le palle” — the Italian word for male body parts synonymous with courage — to invite him.

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Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report.