American actor Kevin Spacey, who is facing off against Anthony Rapp in a USD 40 million civil lawsuit, has spoken about his struggle to publically come out as gay due to his father's racist, homophobic and antisemitic views.
According to Variety, the admission from Spacey came on the witness stand of Rapp's lawsuit trial in New York City on Monday.
Rapp claims Spacey made unwanted sexual advances against him in 1986 when he was 14 years old. In his own testimony, Rapp accused Spacey of being a fraud for not being openly gay.
"To call someone a fraud is to say someone is living a lie. I wasn't living a lie. I was just reluctant to talk about my personal life," Spacey said, reported Variety.
As per the outlet, Spacey said his family moved around a lot because his father was frequently unemployed when he was growing up. The actor said he was "terrified" as a child and was "forced to listen" to his father's racist and bigoted lectures, which prevented him from bringing friends to the house.
He stated when he told his father that about wanting to be an actor, he was told "don't be an f-word." Spacey said, "I won't say it here because it's derogatory. I certainly had a degree of shame."
Spacey said he wanted to become a performer because he loved making his mother, Kathleen, laugh and because she instilled a love of movies in her son.
Before Spacey's career imploded because of Rapp's sexual assault accusations against him in a 2017 BuzzFeed article and other accusers making similar allegations against him, he was one of Hollywood's most acclaimed actors, winning Oscars for his work in 'The Usual Suspects' and 'American Beauty' and starring in the Netflix series 'House of Cards'.
Meanwhile, Spacey's legal team scored a significant victory before the actor ever took the stand.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan dismissed emotional distress charges against Spacey, who now only faces battery charges. "I'm not looking to duplicate damages," Kaplan said, as per Variety.
( With inputs from ANI )
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