Succession’s Brian Cox says Kevin Spacey should be given second chance: ‘Let’s move on’
Successor Brian Cox says he thinks it’s time for Hollywood to let Kevin Spacey back on set.
“I think he should be given the opportunity to go back to work,” the Succession star, 78, said The Hollywood Reporter in an in-depth Q&A Monday.
The resident of Dundee, Scotland, who worked with Spacey, 65, 30 years ago on the 1994 Disney film Iron Will, said the Oscar-winning performer is “a very good actor” who has “been through it,” seven years after a slew of sexual misconduct allegations derailed Spacey’s successful career.
“I just think Kevin had certain things that he couldn’t or wouldn’t admit, and I think it put a strain on him in a lot of ways,” the Emmy Award-winning actor said. “And to me, that was Kevin’s only problem.”
Among the professional fallout Spacey faced as a result of the allegations included losing his starring role in the hit Netflix political drama House of Cards; and digitally removed from the 2017 film All the Money in the World and replaced by the late Christopher Plummer.
“He got the kick that some people think he deserved,” Cox said of Spacey. “He’s ready to get back in the saddle, and people are trying to stop him from doing so.
Successor Brian Cox, 78, says he thinks it’s time for Hollywood to let Kevin Spacey, 65, back on set, more than seven years after the Oscar winner’s career was abruptly halted amid a slew of allegations of sexual misconduct. Pictured in London earlier this month
“And I really go back to, ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.’ Maybe he’s gotten too out of hand, but I don’t think he should be punished endlessly for that. There should be forgiveness and forgetting. Let’s move on.’
Cox, who has appeared in films such as Troy, Braveheart and The Bourne Identity, said he “really likes” Spacey and “finds him very funny.”
The comments from Cox, who played media mogul Logan Roy on the critically acclaimed HBO drama from 2018 until its conclusion in 2023, come more than seven months after Sharon Stone, 66, and Liam Neeson, 72, called for Spacey’s return to The Telegraph.
Stone — who faced controversy last month over her comments on President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection — called Spacey “a genius” and said she “can’t wait to see [him] back to work.’
The casino actress added: ‘He is so elegant and fun, generously generous and knows more about our business than most of us will ever know.’
Neeson told Spacey, “I was deeply saddened to learn of these allegations against him. Kevin is a good man and a man of character.”
In addition to his career coming to an abrupt halt, Spacey has faced a series of legal and financial problems over the past seven years.
In June, his luxury apartment in Baltimore was auctioned for $5.6 million due to a possible foreclosure on the property.
Cox said of Spacey: ‘He got the kick some people think he deserved’
Cox portrayed media mogul Logan Roy in the critically acclaimed HBO drama Succession from 2018 until its conclusion in 2023
Spacey told Piers Morgan in June that he was millions in the red as huge legal bills robbed him of his fortune.
In 2022, Spacey prevailed in a New York City lawsuit brought by actor Anthony Rapp, 53, who said Spacey, then 26, sexually assaulted him in 1986 when he was 14.
A jury in New York City ruled in favor of Spacey in the $40 million civil suit in October 2022.
Spacey was acquitted in London in July 2023 in connection with allegations of sexual assault by four different men dating back decades.
Spacey cried as he testified in the case about the damage his career had suffered as a result of the piling up of accusations against him during the #MeToo movement.