Denzel Washington Says There Were Rumors About Kevin Spacey Decades Ago: 'That's Between Him and God'

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/35005497-denzel-washington-says-there-were-rumors-about-kevin-spacey-decades-ago-that-s-between-him-and-god-

Washington reflected on watching Spacey win an Oscar in 2000 for his performance in 'American Beauty' in a new essay for 'Esquire'

Denzel Washington says many people in Hollywood had suspicions about Kevin Spacey decades before the House of Cards actor faced allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

On Nov. 19, Esquire published a five-part, first-person essay written by Washington, 69, in which the two-time Oscar winner remembered moments in his life and career ahead of the release of Gladiator II. While Washington reflected on attending the 2000 Academy Awards — at which he was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in The Hurricane — the actor recalled watching Spacey, 65, win that year's award instead.

"I’m sure I went home and drank that night. I had to," Washington, who also wrote much about his decision to live a sober lifestyle over the last ten years, wrote in the piece. "I don’t want to sound like, Oh, he won my Oscar, or anything like that. It wasn’t like that."

"And you know, there was talk in the town about what was going on over there on that side of the street, and that’s between him and God," he added. "I ain’t got nothing to do with that. I pray for him. That’s between him and his maker."

Spacey won that year's Best Actor Oscar for his role in 1999's American Beauty; it marked his second Academy Award win after he won Best Supporting Actor in 1996 for the crime thriller The Usual Suspects. 17 years after Spacey won that second Oscar, the actor's career unraveled when Anthony Rapp became the first person to publicly accuse him of sexual assault, with several more accusers coming forward in the years that followed.

In 2022, a jury in New York found that Spacey was not liable for battery in relation to Rapp’s accusations; the following year, a U.K. court found him not guilty of nine counts of alleged sexual assault, with additional initial charges in the case struck as well.

Allegations against Spacey have continued to amass in documentaries like Investigation Discovery's Spacey Unmasked, released in May. Spacey, who has denied all claims made against him — and received criticism for coming out as gay in response to Rapp's initial accusations in 2017 — said in a June interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored that he is struggling to pay his legal bills and that his home in Baltimore was being foreclosed on as a result of the criminal prosecution against him and other lawsuits.

Washington's new movie Gladiator II releases in theaters Nov. 22.