Hollywood star Kevin Spacey says he can relate to those who have lost work due to the coronavirus pandemic as he went through a sudden downfall in his career after a number sexual assault allegations surfaced against him during the #MeToo movement.
The actor, who sometimes records videos to stay in touch with his viewers, spoke about the pandemic in a new video that he recorded from home for a German business conference.
Spacey has denied accusations by more than a dozen men, including actor Anthony Rapp, of sexual misconduct.
Alluding to the change in his fortunes in 2017, the House of Cards actor said, My world completely changed in the fall of 2017. My job, many of my relationships, my standing in my own industry were all gone in just a matter of hours.
Rapp was the first one to accuse the actor of making inappropriate sexual advances in 1986 when he was just 14, prompting Spacey to issue a statement where he said he had no memory of the incident but apologized for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.
The 60-year-old actor also came out as a gay in the statement, which drew further criticism from people.
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Spacey said he can relate to people affected by the coronavirus on what it feels like to see one's world upended suddenly.
In this instance, I feel as though I can relate to what it feels like to have your world suddenly stop. And so while we may have found ourselves in similar situations albeit for very different reasons and circumstances, I still feel that some of the emotional struggles are very much the same.
And so I do have empathy for what it feels like to suddenly be told that you can't go back to work, or that you might lose your job, and it's a situation you have absolutely no control over, he said.
The actor said during a busy career, he was constantly looking at defining himself but when his work came to a grinding halt, he was confronted about existential questions about self.
I was so busy defining myself by what I did or what I was trying to do that when it all stopped, I had no idea what to do next because all I ever knew was how to act. When my career came to a grinding, screeching halt when I was faced with the uncertainty that I might never be hired as an actor again, I had asked myself a question I'd never asked myself before, which is: If I can't act, who am I?