Kevin Spacey Attempts a Comeback: Two New Films at Cannes Film Festival Despite Sexual Assault Allegations

This year’s Cannes Film Festival lasts from May 17th through the 28th, and among its lineup are two films starring Kevin Spacey: Peter Five Eight and 1242: Gateway to the West. The former is a thriller about a real estate agent (Jet Jandreau) whose co-worker (Rebecca De Mornay) is targeted by a mysterious man (Spacey). The latter is a historical drama about a battle between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Mongolian army.

In October 2017, Rent and Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp told BuzzFeed News that Spacey had allegedly sexually assaulted him in 1986 — when Spacey was 26 and Rapp was 14. Spacey responded on Twitter that he “[did] not remember the encounter,” apologized, and came out as gay. Spacey’s statement received widespread backlash from the LGBT community for deflecting from the allegations and conflating queerness with alleged pedophilia.

In the following days, over 30 additional people (many also underage) accused Spacey of sexual misconduct between 1985 and 2017. His character on House of Cards was killed off, Christopher Plummer replaced him in All the Money in the World a month before its release, and Vertical Entertainment silently released Billionaire Boys Club to an opening weekend gross of $126 the following summer.

Joshua Goodstein: Joshua Goodstein is a film and entertainment writer from New York. He graduated with a B.A. in Cinema Studies from Purchase College, where he also served as a co-founder and editorial board member for CinemaRoll Journal. His writing has been published by The Week, HeyAlma, and others.
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