Kevin Spacey told a jury today that he was a “huge flirt” when he admitted touching one of his alleged victims, but insisted it was in a “gentle, romantic” way.
The Oscar-winning actor, 63, is accused of “aggressively” grabbing the man by the crotch while driving him to a showbiz party in the early 2000s.
Describing one of his alleged victims, he told Southwark Crown Court, “He was a lad boy, he was funny and charming and flirty.”
He added that he had touched the man in “romantic” and “intimate” ways, telling the court, “I’m a big flirt.”
Spacey said he and the man didn’t move on because the alleged victim “made it clear he didn’t want to move on and that sometimes happens, and you just respect how far someone is willing to go.”
“I can’t remember specific conversations we had, but I remember the tone, I remember the vibe, I remember the laughter,” he continued. “We had a very nice time together.”
A court sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Kevin Spacey testifying today at Southwark Crown Court
Spacey – who was seen this morning at Southwark Crown Court in London – is accused of ‘aggressively’ grabbing the man’s crotch while driving him to a party in the early 2000s
The actor accepted that he had touched the man, but insisted: “It wasn’t done in a violent, aggressive, painful way. It was gentle… and it was, in my mind, romantic.”
When asked if he liked the man, Spacey said, “I really liked him. We had a good time together. We have laughed a lot.’
Spacey described his relationship with the alleged victim as “somewhat intimate.”
He told jurors, “We talked about a lot of things, it was very relaxed with him – somewhat intimate. We enjoyed each other’s company.’
Spacey told jurors he had struggled to find out where he was when the alleged violations occurred.
He said, ‘I happen to keep everything, so I have a storage facility in Baltimore and a storage unit in London, and I started going back and going through boxes and boxes and boxes from where I was, contracts between myself, my publicists and photographers, to look at dates to try to say where I was and what time.’
The actor also said he googled himself to see where he was at certain times.
The two-time Oscar winner told the court he was “clearly the dumbest man in England” because he was “still renting a phone” while in the UK.
He said he was able to retrieve phone records from the early 2000s after being told by his business partner that the records “go all the way back.”
Spacey told jurors he had struggled to find out where he was when the alleged violations occurred
Earlier, the actor told the jury about his childhood and how he became an actor.
The court heard that he was born in South Orange, New Jersey, in the US, to a mother who was a private secretary and a father who worked in the aircraft industry.
He mentioned a number of schools he attended, including one that fellow actor Val Kilmer attended.
He described how he was “wonderful” about his first acting experience in drama class in his “eighth grade” and how he attended New York’s Juilliard School of Drama after school.
The court heard that he got his first job in New York in “a very small series of roles in Shakespeare in the Park.”
Spacey told judges that he considered his performance in the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross to be his first major film role.
He told the court that his mother “considered herself an Anglophile” and that he first visited the UK as a child.
Speaking of his first time coming to London as an actor, he told the jury that he had stayed for several months in 1986 for a production of Long Day’s Journey at the Haymarket Theatre.
He said fellow actor Richard Harris put him in his son’s apartment while he was staying in the UK.
Spacey said he became involved with London’s Old Vic theater after discovering there was “something quite unique” about it.
The court heard that the theater had “fallen into disrepair” around the early 2000s, but there was a movement to “revive” it.
Spacey said, “I was mad enough at one point to throw my hat in the ring as a possible candidate.”
Until 2015 he was the artistic director of The Old Vic.
This morning, Spacey told the jury about his childhood and how he became an actor
He added that the same year he “got the chance to do a television series to be shot in the US called House Of Cards.”
The defendant, who is on trial under his full name Kevin Spacey Fowler, was labeled a “sexual bully” last month.
He denies charges, including sexual assault and indecent assault, allegedly committed between 2001 and 2013.
During the course of the trial at Southwark Crown Court, all of Spacey’s accusers gave evidence – variously describing him as a ‘despicable sexual predator’, ‘slippery’ and ‘hideous, despicable, disgusting’.
Jurors were told of alleged “aggressive” groin grabs against three men, while a fourth complainant accused Spacey of drugging him and performing a sexual act on him while he slept.
When questioned by Spacey’s attorney, Patrick Gibbs KC, the men all denied that they were either seeking financial gain, trying to advance their careers, or making false statements to the jury.
Prosecutor Shauna Ritchie said Wednesday the defendant had told police he was “baffled” and “deeply hurt” by one man’s claims and that he did not recognize two others.
The actor said he may have made a “clumsy pass” at his latest alleged victim, but denied intentionally assaulting him.
Spacey pleaded not guilty in January to three charges of indecent assault, three charges of sexual assault and one charge of causing sexual activity without a person’s consent.
The two-time Academy Award winner also previously denied four other charges of sexual assault and one count of causing penetrative sexual activity without a person’s consent.
The process continues.