Guy Pearce’s wild campaigning for his Oscar-nominated turn in “The Brutalist” has sparked many headlines these last few months. From his claim of being blackballed by Warner Bros to calling his “Memento” performance “sh*t,” there’s been no shortage of news.
However, Pearce’s latest claim is severe. He recently opened up about an unsettling experience he had working with Kevin Spacey during the filming of 1997’s “L.A. Confidential” which made him realize only after the #MeToo movement sparked up that Spacey’s actons might have been “problematic.”
In a THR interview, Pearce revealed that Spacey’s behavior made him feel “uncomfortable” and “fearful” on set. Pearce described Spacey as “extremely charming and brilliant at what he does,” but also “quite an aggressive man.” He went on to recount, albeit cryptically, Spacey’s advances, telling himself, “Ah, that’s nothing.” Reflecting on that time, Pearce said, “I was young and susceptible, and he targeted me, no question.”
I did that thing that you do where you brush it off and go, ‘Ah, that’s nothing. Ah, no, that’s nothing.’ And I did that for five months, and, really, I was sort of scared of Kevin because he’s quite an aggressive man […] I was young and susceptible, and he targeted me, no question.
Pearce clarified by saying he “wasn’t sexually assaulted or molested,” but was made very uncomfortable by whatever Spacey did to him.
Well, Spacey has responded to Pearce’s allegations in a video on X, telling the actor to “grow up” and insisting he is “not a victim.” Spacey went on to wonder why Pearce would speak publicly about it instead of addressing the issue privately with him, and accused him of pushing a “victim narrative.”
Spacey goes on to mention how Pearce had “led him on,” and how come, after they wrapped “L.A. Confidential,” the actor went out of his way to fly over and visit Spacey on the set of his ensuing film, “Midnight in the Garden of Good Evil,” where they spent time together.
Grow up. Did you also, by the way, tell the press that a year after we shot L.A. Confidential you flew to Savannah, Georgia while I was shooting Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil just to spend time with me? Did you tell the press that, too? Or does that not fit into the ‘victim’ narrative that you have going?
This isn’t the first time Pearce spoke about Spacey’s behavior on the set of “L.A. Confidential.” Back in 2018, the actor described Spacey as “a handsy guy,” and that “thankfully I was 29, and not 14” at the time.