Kevin Spacey calls his father a "neo-Nazi" as Anthony Rapp sexual misconduct trail continues

"My father was a white supremacist and a neo-Nazi," Kevin Spacey shared during witness testimony. "I have never talked about these things publicly ever."

By Hattie Lindert | October 18, 2022 | 3:26pm

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Kevin Spacey Photo: Alexi J. Rosenfeld

As his sexual misconduct trial in New York continues, Kevin Spacey shared that he struggled with his sexuality early in life due to his father’s homophobic views.

“My father was a white supremacist and a neo-Nazi,” Spacey says of his father, Thomas Fowler, per Variety. “I have never talked about these things publicly ever… I grew up in a very complicated family dynamic.”’

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The admission came as Spacey took the stand for defense testimony. Spacey faces a $40 million civil lawsuit from actor Anthony Rapp, who alleges that Spacey made unwanted sexual advances on him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 years old. In previous testimony, Rapp has described the incident as “the most traumatic single event of my life.”

“I knew something was wrong,” Rapp said. “I had this feeling I had to get out of there. What I was also feeling was frozen.”

Spacey has repeatedly denied Rapp’s claims, and used an initial 2017 public apology to come out as gay. When Spacey’s lead attorney Chase A. Scolnick asked him to comment on Rapp’s suggestion in earlier testimony that Spacey was a “fraud” for not coming out sooner, Spacey dove into his past.

“To call someone a fraud is to say someone is living a lie,” Spacey said. “I wasn’t living a lie. I was just reluctant to talk about my personal life.”

Further describing his family dynamic, Spacey reportedly shares that he was “terrified” of his father and was “forced to listen” to Fowler’s bigoted tirades. When Spacey expressed interest in becoming an actor, Fowler reportedly told him “don’t be an f-word.”

“I won’t say it here because it’s derogatory,” Spacey says. “I certainly had a degree of shame.”

On Monday, judges dismissed an emotional distress claim Rapp filed against Spacey on the grounds that it would “duplicate damages,” per Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. Spacey still faces battery charges (and a hefty fine to go with them).

Beyond his New York City trial, Spacey also faces five sexual assault charges in the U.K., to which he has also pled not guilty. A trial for those charges—which include four counts of sexual assault from three different men dating back to 2005—will begin next summer.