Advertisement
New Zealand markets closed
  • NZX 50

    12,105.29
    +94.63 (+0.79%)
     
  • NZD/USD

    0.5983
    +0.0008 (+0.13%)
     
  • NZD/EUR

    0.5538
    +0.0005 (+0.10%)
     
  • ALL ORDS

    8,153.70
    +80.10 (+0.99%)
     
  • ASX 200

    7,896.90
    +77.30 (+0.99%)
     
  • OIL

    83.11
    -0.06 (-0.07%)
     
  • GOLD

    2,254.80
    +16.40 (+0.73%)
     
  • NASDAQ

    18,254.69
    -26.15 (-0.14%)
     
  • FTSE

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • Dow Jones

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • DAX

    18,492.49
    +15.40 (+0.08%)
     
  • Hang Seng

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,369.44
    +201.37 (+0.50%)
     
  • NZD/JPY

    90.4140
    +0.0210 (+0.02%)
     

Kevin Spacey Seeks to Throw Out $31 Million Judgement for Breaching His House of Cards Contract

Kevin Spacey is seeking to toss out a $31 million arbitration award arising from his alleged conduct on the set of House of Cards, claiming he did not act inappropriately while filming the Netflix series.

Spacey was ordered to pay the studio behind Netflix's House of Cards, MRC, in 2020 for breach of contract after violating the company's sexual harassment policy. MRC severed ties with Spacey, 62, in 2017, following multiple allegations of sexually predatory behavior against the actor. At the time, MRC claimed Spacey cost them millions in lost profits after his misconduct forced them to remove him from the series and cut the sixth season down by five episodes.

On Friday, Spacey's lawyers filed an opposition, asking the court to set the motion aside.

"The truth is that while Spacey participated in a pervasive on-set culture that was filled with sexual innuendoes, jokes, and innocent horseplay, he never sexually harassed anyone," the opposition, filed Friday and obtained by Variety, read.

ADVERTISEMENT

RELATED: Kevin Spacey Ordered to Pay Nearly $31 Million to House of Cards Production for Breach of Contract

The documents continued: "In fact, as the evidence established and the Arbitrator recognized in the Award, the few times Spacey was told that his conduct made someone feel uncomfortable or was in any way unwanted, he stopped."

Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey

Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images Kevin Spacey

The arbitration award was quietly won by MCR in 2020 and came to light in November 2021 when MRC filed a petition in civil court to confirm the award.

Though the 2020 ruling found MCR had a right to the millions, which Spacey and his companies M. Profitt Productions and Trigger Street Productions must pay, per the arbitrator's findings, lawyers for the disgraced actor disagreed. They cited that external allegations against Spacey couldn't be considered in the proceedings as Netflix was unaware of many of the allegations at the time they decided to cut him from the show.

RELATED: Faye Dunaway Cast in Kevin Spacey's First Film Since He Faced Sexual Assault Allegations (Report)

"As the Arbitrator recognized, the reduction in episodes was a foregone conclusion once Netflix dictated to Petitioners that Spacey could not and would not be a part of Season 6," the attorneys wrote. "But what the Arbitrator ignored is that the conduct he found to be in breach of the Agreements was not even known by Netflix at the time it made this decision. In other words, the breaches found by the Arbitrator could not have been related to Petitioners' damages because those damages had already been caused by the time the breaching conduct was known."

Representatives for Spacey did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Sexual assault allegations against Spacey first surfaced back in 2017 — when Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp accused the actor of making inappropriate sexual advances toward him when he was only 14 in a BuzzFeed article.

In a statement released in the wake of the allegations, the former House of Cards actor, 61, said in part that he didn't remember the alleged incident, apologized for "what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior" and announced, "I choose now to live as a gay man."

High-profile LBGTQ+ actors like Wanda Sykes and Billy Eichner criticized the statement, with GLAAD cautioning that Spacey coming out should not "deflect" from Rapp's allegation.

In July 2018, three more people reportedly came forward to accuse Spacey of sexual assault in England, and in August of that year, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office received a new sexual assault case involving the Oscar winner, reps from the office confirmed to PEOPLE at the time. The office declined to file charges against Spacey.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.