Anthony Rapp opened up about the positive outcome from speaking out about allegedly being sexually harassed by Kevin Spacey when he was 14 years old.
“I’ve been very surprised by it all,” Rapp, 46, told Entertainment Tonight at One Night With the Stars charity concert for women and children battling cancer on Monday, December 4. “I’ve been very gratified by the response I’ve gotten from so many people.”
He added: “I think all of this is an important step to dismantle the machinery that allowed this sort of thing to continue.”
As previously reported, the Star Trek: Discovery actor claimed in an interview with BuzzFeed News published on October 29 that the House of Cards star, 58, made unwanted sexual advances toward him at a party in 1986. Rapp alleged that Spacey, then 26, laid “down on top” of him in a bedroom and “was trying to seduce” him.
Spacey responded to the allegations and was quickly criticized on Twitter for coming out as gay in the same statement in which he apologized to Rapp for the for alleged sexual misconduct. In the October 30 statement, Spacey wrote that he does “not remember the encounter,” but apologized to Rapp “for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” In the second half of his post, Spacey wrote, “I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man.”
Spacey was subsequently fired from the Netflix series on November 4, amid allegations that he had sexually harassed eight show employees. Us Weekly confirmed on Monday that the show’s sixth and final season will resume without Spacey, but with Robin Wright as the lead.
Rapp took to Twitter the same day to send his best to the show’s remaining cast members. “I’m very gratified to learn that the many folks who’ve been in limbo this past month will in fact have the chance to complete their work that had been interrupted,” he wrote. “I wish them all the very best on @HouseofCards Season 6.”
“It was important to me that the ripple effects of everything that’s gone on don’t negatively affect too many people,” Rapp explained to ET of his tweet. “So, I’m really happy that the people that work on House of Cards are continuing to get to do that work.”
