Cannes 2025: Kevin Spacey hits out at Hollywood blacklisting while accepting award
On May 20th, Kevin Spacey accepted Better World Fund Gala’s ‘Award for Excellence in Film and Television’ at Cannes Film Festival and used his speech to speak out against blacklisting in Hollywood.
Spacey, a double Oscar winner, has been unable to find work in Hollywood since 2017 due to sexual assault allegations. Following the birth of the MeToo movement, Spacey faced a plethora of sexual misconduct allegations, which resulted in two trials.
In addition to being cleared in the London trial, a jury in New York found Spacey not guilty in 2022 after he was accused of molesting Andrew Rapp in the 1990s when Rapp was 14, which the actor denied.
Now, at Cannes, Spacey said upon accepting his award: “I’ve been thinking of someone else you saw earlier on the screen tonight, Kirk Douglas, great American film star. It was a long, long time ago, but we have to think about the pushback that he received after he made the brave decision to stand up for fellow colleague, 2x Oscar winning screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted from 1947-1960. He was blacklisted. Blacklisted, we know what that mean? He couldn’t find work in Hollywood for 13 years.”
Spacey continued (via Deadline): “But even after he was warned if he tried to hire Trumbo as the credited screenwriter for Spartacus in 1960, he’d be called a Commie lover, and his career and professional status would be canceled, Kirk Douglas took the risk, and would later say, and I won’t do my Kirk Douglas impression, but he said this, ‘It’s easier for us actors to play the heroes on screen. We get to fight the bad guys and stand up for justice. But in real life, the choices are not always so clear. There are times when one has to stand up for principal.”
The House of Cards actor continued: “I’ve learned a lot from history — it often repeats itself. The Blacklist was a terrible time in our history [we must remember] so that it never happens again.”
He then claimed “475 other industry professionals whose lives were destroyed by false allegations during that lengthy dark period” before telling those in attendance that he believes “today we find ourselves once again at the intersection of uncertainty and fear in the film business and beyond.”
Spacey then spoke about Tim Doyle, who the Writers Guild of America disciplined due to allegations of writing during the 2023 strike before it was recently reversed. The actor said Doyle “hasn’t been able to get work since” the incident.
The Oscar-winner was visibly emotional at the end of his speech, when he quoted his friend Elton John, who gave evidence as a defence witness during Spacey’s London trial, by saying, “I’m still standing.”
Cannes Film Festival is set to conclude on May 24th, 2025.
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