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

Mar. 15, 2025

Denzel Washington and Kevin Spacey.Photo:Anthony Sinclair/Getty; Steve Granitz/WireImage

Anthony Sinclair/Getty; Steve Granitz/WireImage

Denzel Washingtonsays many people in Hollywood had suspicions aboutKevin Spaceydecades before theHouse of Cardsactor facedallegations of sexual assault and harassment.

“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 myOscar, 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.”

Kevin Spacey at the 2000 Academy Awards.Frank Trapper/Corbis/Getty

Frank Trapper/Corbis/Getty

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

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In 2022, a jury in New York found thatSpacey wasnot liable for batteryin relation to Rapp’s accusations; the following year, a U.K. court found himnot guilty of nine counts of alleged sexual assault, with additional initial charges in the case struck as well.

Denzel Washington on March 13, 2000.David McNew/Online USA/Getty

David McNew/Online USA/Getty

Allegations against Spacey havecontinued to amassin documentaries like Investigation Discovery’sSpacey Unmasked, released in May. Spacey, who has denied all claims made against him — and received criticism forcoming out as gay in response to Rapp’s initial accusationsin 2017 — said in a June interview onPiers Morgan Uncensoredthat he is struggling to pay his legal bills and that hishome in Baltimore was being foreclosed onas a result of the criminal prosecution against him and other lawsuits.

Washington’s new movieGladiator IIreleases in theaters Nov. 22.

source: people.com