Sharon Stone and Liam Neeson want Kevin Spacey to get his career back

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Sharon Stone and Liam Neeson are calling on Hollywood to reinstate disgraced actor Kevin Spacey after he was acquitted of sexual assault in 2022 and 2023.

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In statements given to The Telegraph, Stone and Neeson said Spacey should be given a chance to act again.

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“I can’t wait to see Kevin back at work. He is a genius. He is so elegant and fun, generous to a fault and knows more about our craft than most of us ever will,” Stone told the publication.

Neeson told the paper that Spacey was a “good man and a man of character.”

“He’s sensitive, articulate and non-judgmental, with a terrific sense of humour. He is also one of our finest artists in the theatre and on camera. Personally speaking, our industry needs him and misses him greatly,” he said.

F. Murray Abraham, who himself was accused of misconduct on the set of Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest, also endorsed his return.

“I vouch for him unequivocally,” Abraham said. “Who are these vultures who attack a man who has publicly accepted his responsibility for certain behavior, unlike so many others? … He is a fine man, I stand with him, and let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

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Spacey’s alleged misdeeds and claims of sexual assault first arose in the wake of the #MeToo movement in 2017 when he was accused by actor Anthony Rapp of sexually assaulting him when he was 14 years old in the early 1980s.

Additional complainants surfaced, all of whom accused the two-time Oscar winner of sexual assault. 

Three men accused Spacey of aggressively grabbing their crotches, describing him as “vile” and a “slippery, snaky” predator. A fourth, an aspiring actor, said he awoke to the actor performing oral sex on him after falling asleep or passing out in Spacey’s London apartment where he had gone for career advice and a beer.

Through it all, Spacey, 64, maintained his innocence, saying he was a “casual flirt” but not guilty of abuse.

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Last year, a jury in London acquitted the actor of sexual assault. That verdict was preceded by a not guilty decision from a jury in New York, who concluded that he did not molest Rapp.

Tears rolled down Spacey’s cheeks when he was found innocent last summer.

“I imagine that many of you can understand that there’s a lot for me to process after what has just happened today,” Spacey said outside Southwark Crown Court. “I am enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts carefully before they reached their decision.”

During his testimony, Spacey said that his “world exploded” when the allegations first surfaced in 2017.

“There was a rush to judgment and before the first question was asked or answered, I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days,” he said.

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But earlier this month, Spacey faced more accusations of inappropriate behaviour from men who appear in a new documentary Spacey Unmasked.

Spacey slammed the two-part doc in a long thread on X, writing, “I will not sit back and be attacked by a dying network’s one-sided ‘documentary’ about me in their desperate attempt for ratings.”  

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In an online interview with journalist Dan Wootton, Spacey went on to say he has never done anything illegal and admitted that he has struggled to get back to work after being acquitted last year of criminal charges in a London court.

“I can’t go through this again, allowing myself to be baselessly attacked without defending myself,” he said in the interview that was aired on Wootton’s YouTube channel.

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Actor Stephen Fry also took aim at the documentary in a statement given to The Telegraph, calling the film part of an orchestrated harassment campaign.

“To devote a whole documentary to accusations that simply do not add up to crimes … How can that be considered proportionate and justified?” he said.

After the allegations, Spacey’s career ground to a halt. He was dropped from All the Money in the World, with actor Christopher Plummer filming Spacey’s already completed scenes, and dumped by Netflix from his role on House of Cards.

“It is bizarre they decided to publicly cut ties with me on allegations alone, allegations that have now been proven false,” Spacey said last December in an interview with Tucker Carlson. “Because I don’t think there’s any question. Netflix exists because of me. I put them on the map and they tried to put me in the ground.”

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