Photo: Molly Crane-Newman/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Anthony Rapp testified Friday that he felt “like a deer in the headlights” after Kevin Spacey allegedly climbed on him at a party three decades ago. At the time of the alleged attack, the Rent star was 14 and the American beauty actor was 26. Rapp’s testimony came on the second day of his civil sex-abuse trial against Spacey in Manhattan. He sued Spacey in 2020 in connection with that alleged encounter. “I was frozen. I was pinned under him,” Rapp told the jury. “I didn’t really know what to do.” Rapp, who has known Spacey since they both worked in theater, said he went to a party at the older actor’s house one night in 1986, hoping to meet others meet in their industry. At the time, Rapp was a five-foot-tall teenager weighing about 100 pounds. “I wasn’t quite all grown up,” Rapp recalled, referring to his appearance when he said Spacey “felt big to me” as he opened the door to his apartment. Rapp said he’s not worried about taking adults to a party at Spacey’s apartment — he’s been surrounded by adults at industry gatherings for years without incident. When Rapp walked in, the light was a bit dim. “I didn’t see anyone I knew other than Kevin Spacey,” he said. “It didn’t seem like there were many people there.” Rapp said he wasn’t introduced to anyone and no one approached him: “I just immediately felt awkward and shy.” So Rapp decided to take in the awe-inspiring view from Spacey’s high-rise apartment on the Upper East Side. Then he decided to watch TV in the bedroom area.
At one point, Rapp noticed Spacey to his right. “I was sitting here on the edge of the bed, facing the window and the TV, with my feet on the floor … I noticed he was kind of unsteady on his feet and kind of seemed a little glassy, a little bit unfocused in his eyes.” “, he said. Rapp claimed that the “intoxicated” looking Spacey then reached down and picked him up, holding him “like a bridegroom holds a bride over a threshold.” Spacey allegedly put Rapp on the bed and lay on top of him. “He put his full weight on my chest,” Rapp said. “He wasn’t exactly parallel to me; it was a small angle. He pressed his groin against my hip, the side of my hip.” Rapp said he managed to “squirm out” from under Spacey and temporarily took refuge in the bathroom. As Rapp exited the restroom and made his way to the door, Spacey asked, “Are you sure you want to leave?” Rapp claims. Rapp said he responded with “some version of ‘No thanks, good night'” and left.
Another Spacey accuser testified Friday morning. Andy Holtzman told jurors that during an alleged incident in the summer of 1981 in which he claimed Spacey accosted him in his office at The Public Theater, he “picked me up by the crotch” and “thrust me back onto my desk.” “I knew I was screaming things like, ‘What are you doing? Get off me!'” Holtzman, who ran a film program at The Public Theater, said he was at his desk, finishing a phone call in his office, when Spacey walked in. It wasn’t a private office; There were two desks, and people in the theater business often used the room as a lounge. Spacey, who was in a public theater production of Henry IV, said nothing. As his call ended, Spacey approached Holtzman, who was still seated. “I noticed that he was wearing very tight blue jeans and through the blue jeans there was a very noticeable, large erection,” Holtzman claimed. “He started to approach. I wasn’t sure what to do.” Holtzmann stood up. Spacey picked him up and pushed him against the desk, he claimed. “I could feel his erection on my body…near my groin,” Holtzman said, appearing shaken as he testified. “It was a few more moments before he gave in and got up and got off me.” He said Spacey “stormed out” of the office in anger. Spacey was wordless during the alleged encounter. “I sat there in complete shock. I didn’t really know what just happened.” Holtzman said his mind was racing. “Did I do anything to bring this about? What have I done?” he recalled thinking. “I blamed myself.” Holtzman was called by Rapp’s attorneys, who are trying to determine that Rapp’s allegations against Spacey were not isolated. Rapp claimed Spacey had the time Picking up a minor, pressing him against a bed and laying on top of him after a house party.Rapp was 14 at the time of the alleged incident and Spacey was 26. While Holtzman was 27 at the time of the alleged encounter at the Manhattan Arts Organization, his description was accurate agree with Rapp’s claims Holtzman is not a party in this case.
Under cross-examination, one of Spacey’s attorneys, Chase Scolnick, attempted to poke holes in Holtzman’s memories. He also tried to undermine the idea that Spacey would be attracted to minors. “You could grow a beard in 1981, right?” Scolnick said. “No one would mistake you for a 14-year-old in 1981?” Holtzmann agreed.
After Holtzman’s testimony was finished, Rapp’s longtime friend Christopher Denny took the stand. Sometime in the early 1990s, Denny said Rapp told him about the alleged encounter with Spacey. “Mr. Spacey picked him up and laid him on a bed that was in that room and then laid on top of the bed on top of him, which scared him, made him uncomfortable and worried him and so on,” Denny claimed, Rapp told him.
Rapp took the witness stand before lunch and will testify later today.
This story has been updated with additional information.