Kevin Spacey Claims He's Coming Out of 'Showbusiness Jail' and Feels 'Much More Welcome' — As He Eyes Hollywood Comeback
Kevin Spacey believes he's feeling 'much more welcome in Hollywood' years after his scandal.
June 29 2026, Published 7:45 p.m. ET
Kevin Spacey claims he now feels "much more welcome in Hollywood" as he eyes a comeback, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Oscar winner, 66, was being grilled by podcast host Bill Maher in a new interview when he opened up about the possibility of kickstarting his career again, years after facing bombshell sexual assault allegations.
Sidelined by Mainstream Hollywood
Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple men, which he's consistently denied.
He asked Spacey if he remains in "showbusiness jail," to which the The Usual Suspects star responded by saying he feels "less in jail than I did."
The actor was sidelined by mainstream Hollywood after multiple men accused him of sexual misconduct, which he has consistently denied. In 2017, actor Anthony Rapp became the first to accuse Spacey of sexually abusing him. He claimed the incident occurred in 1986 – Spacey would have been 26, while Rapp was 14.
More than a dozen men subsequently accused Spacey of sexual misconduct, all of which he has either denied or insisted were consensual.
'It Was a Small Kitchen Fire — Not a Raging Forest Fire'
Spacey attempted to play down the scandals in an interview with Bill Maher.
Opening up about Spacey's scandals, Maher said: "I'm not going to lie to you, I go by numbers with scandals... If it's like one person, I'm always like, I don’t know if I wasn’t in the room. When it gets to.. (the number of accusers Spacey had)... There's too much smoke to be no fire."
Stacey responded, "I never said there was no fire. It just wasn't a raging forest fire. It was a small kitchen fire that could have been put out with an extinguisher."
The American Beauty star added. "We've been found not guilty in every court we’ve gone into with a jury."
'I Hit on a Lot of Guys'
Spacey admitted to being 'forward' toward men in the past.
"There are certain cases where part of something is true, but it’s been rethought, it’s been redesigned, or it’s been entirely made up, certainly in the case of Anthony Rapp, which is a case that we won in federal court in New York," he claimed.
As Radar previously reported, Rapp's allegations were dismissed by a Manhattan court in 2022, and in 2023, Spacey stood trial in the U.K. after four men alleged that he had sexually assaulted them in separate incidents between 2001 and 2013. He was once again cleared of all offenses.
Although Maher conceded he hadn’t “done his homework” regarding all of the allegations, he continued to push Spacey on the point that the number of accusations against him represented “a lot of smoke.” When Maher suggested that Spacey had been “forward,” the actor agreed: “I hit on a lot of guys.”
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The actor claimed he was 'fiercely closeted' before coming out.
Spacey, who only came out as gay following Rapp’s allegations, added: “Over the years that I have been an actor, I was very, very closeted. I was fiercely closeted… I thought I was so clever that nobody knew, but of course, kind of everybody knew.”
Spacey has slowly been making his way back into entertainment in recent years. He has starred in several small projects since his acquittal, including the 2024 thriller The Contract, in which he played the Devil.
Earlier this year, he was also presented with the Maximo Award for Excellence at the Italian Global Series Festival.
