Kevin Spacey Receives Lifetime Award in Italy Ahead of Sexual Assault Trial

TURIN, Italy (AP) – In his first speech since the #MeToo-era accusations derailed his career, actor Kevin Spacey used the colorful Italian term to thank the National Film Museum in the northern city of Turin on Monday for having the courage to invite him.

Spacey received the Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award, discussed key roles during a master class, and then presented the 1999 film American Beauty, for which he won his second acting Oscar, to a sold-out audience.

“I am truly blessed, grateful and humbled. And tonight my heart goes out to the National Film Museum for having ‘le palle’ to invite me tonight,” Spacey said, using the Italian word for male body part. courageously, to the applause of the audience of the master class.

CONNECTED: The jury concluded that Kevin Spacey did not molest actor Anthony Rapp in 1986.

“By presenting this award, they strongly defend artistic achievement and should be applauded for that,” Spacey said.

Previous Stella della Mole winners include actors Isabella Rossellini and Monica Bellucci and director Dario Argento.

The sold-out events were billed as Spacey’s first performances in five years. After multiple allegations of sexual assault surfaced, the two-time Oscar winner lost his lead role in the Netflix series House of Cards and saw other opportunities run out.

Spacey did not speak directly about the accusations while accepting the award or during the hour-long workshop. But, noting the loyalty of many fans, he said that “the bond I share with them will not be easily broken by rampant, ever-changing mobocratic ties.”

He gasped when he thanked his manager Evan Lowenstein for his support, calling him “the brother I never had”.

Spacey said he was also “immensely grateful” to Italian director Frank Nero, who hired him to star in his new film, The Man Who Painted God, which was filmed in Turin. Spacey will be there when the film is screened later this week in Rome.

After the master class, fans lined up to take selfies and sign the DVD.

“I really miss him and I think he had a great movie role. He made Netflix what it is today,” said Chiara Ottolini, referring to the huge success of House of Cards. “I’m so glad to see him coming back because we have to separate the man and the artist.”

Mary Bicci made the hour train ride from Milan to see Spacey, whom she considers one of the best actors of all time.

“When the scandal happened, I went into mourning because I knew full well that they would immediately ostracize him,” she said.

Spacey is expected to stand trial in London in June on a dozen allegations of sexual assault against four men between 2001 and 2013, including when he was artistic director of the city’s Old Vic Theatre. He pleaded not guilty.

In October, a federal jury in a New York civil case found that Spacey, 63, did not sexually abuse actor Anthony Rapp when both were relatively unknown Broadway actors in 1986 and Rapp was 14 years old. The jury deliberated for just over an hour before deciding that Rapp, now 50, did not prove his claims.

Earlier in Massachusetts, Spacey was accused of groping a man in a bar. Prosecutors later dropped the charges.

In August, a Los Angeles judge upheld an arbitrator’s decision ordering Spacey to pay the House of Cards creators $30.9 million for violating his contract by sexually harassing crew members.

Elena Cortini, a design student who watched American Beauty for the second time, said she didn’t know what to do with the allegations. She said that she loves cinema and prefers to focus on the craft in the 1999 film.

“If he gets his life back like he said, it’s good for him,” she said.