On Monday, the day after Buzzfeed published an interview with Anthony Rapp in which the actor said that Kevin Spacey made sexual advances toward him in 1986 (Rapp was 14 at the time; Spacey, 26), Netflix announced the next season of House of Cards would be its last.
Then, on Thursday, CNN reported that eight people who work, or have worked on the show anonymously attested to Spacey’s alleged “pattern of sexual harassment” on set. All of CNN’s sources described Spacey’s behavior—which they say included groping and lewd comments directed, typically, at young, male staffers—as “predatory.”
A former production assistant also claimed that Spacey sexually assaulted him while working on an early season of House of Cards. The alleged incident occurred when the production assistant was tasked with picking up Spacey and bringing him to the set. While Spacey was driving them toward work, the assistant says the actor stuck his hands down his pants in what was a nonconsensual act. “I was in a state of shock,” the production assistant recounted to CNN. “He was a man in a very powerful position on the show and I was someone very low on the totem pole and on the food chain there.”
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The abuse allegedly continued later that day when the assistant said he took Spacey’s bags to his on-set trailer, at which point Spacey blocked the exit and touched him inappropriately again. The alleged assault took place months after the production assistant initially told a supervisor that Spacey was sexually harassing him. A coworker corroborated to CNN that the assistant had told them about the alleged incident.
The production assistant also told CNN he believes Spacey victimized other young men who worked on the show:
“I have no doubt that this type of predatory behavior was routine for him and that my experience was one of many and that Kevin had few if any qualms about exploiting his status and position…. It was a toxic environment for young men who had to interact with him at all in the crew, cast, background actors.”
Another crew member, who worked on the show for all six seasons, told CNN that Spacey made a habit of sexually harassing him and touching him inappropriately.
House of Cards’ production company, MRC, told CNN that they have put in place “an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors, and sexual harassment legal advisor for the crew.”
In 2015 Gawker reported several claims that Spacey was aggressive with or inappropriate toward young men, including those working on House of Cards.