Richard Dreyfuss's son says he was groped by Kevin Spacey
Harry Dreyfuss, the actor son of Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss, has revealed that he was groped by Kevin Spacey when his father was working at the Old Vic in London.
Dreyfuss was 18 when the alleged incident took place, in 2008.
Writing in a column for Buzzfeed, he detailed the encounter, and said that he did not tell his father about it for many years.
Richard Dreyfuss went to London to star in the play ‘Complicit’ while Spacey was the Old Vic’s creative director.
Harry Dreyfuss, who was a senior at high school, and who’d accompanied his father, says that it was while he was at Spacey’s apartment taking part in a rehearsal that he was groped.
Spacey had Harry Dreyfuss help to run the lines, which is when the incident occurred, while his father was in the same room.
Recalling his first meeting with Spacey, he said: “He saw me and his eyes lit up. He gave me such a warm smile, and instead of shaking my hand, he gave me a hug. Instantly, my young-man-perpetually-seeking-father-figures heart melted. All I remember thinking was you’re so nice.”
However, the dynamic soon changed.
Spacey first ‘wrapped his fingers between my fingers’ when the two of them were alone in the actor’s kitchen, and then while on a sofa running lines, Spacey began touching his thigh.
“He was an adult man, a hero of mine, my dad’s boss, none of which were categories on my radar for sexual interactions,” writes Dreyfuss.
“Besides, I thought, surely he can’t be coming on to me like this right in front of my dad. But his hand stayed there. So after a bit, I came up with what I thought was a brilliant safety tactic: I stood up and walked to the other side of the couch, and sat back down. Bulletproof. But without missing a beat, Kevin stood up too, and followed me. He sat just as close and immediately put his hand back on my thigh.”
Though Dreyfuss moved another two times, Spacey continued to follow him.
“My dad saw none of this and none of what would follow, because he was deeply focused on his script,” he continues.
“Once again Kevin followed me, sat down, and with considerable effort, slid his hand between my right hand and my right leg. He’d snuck in. At this point I didn’t think there was anything I could do short of alerting my dad to what was happening.
“But I didn’t want to start a feud between them. I didn’t want the play to be threatened. This job really mattered to my dad, and Kevin was his boss. And besides, I thought, He isn’t really doing anything wrong. And then he did.
“Over the course of about 20 seconds, centimeter by centimeter, Kevin crawled his hand from my thigh over toward my crotch. My mind went blank. Suddenly, he had completed his journey and now he had all of me in his hand. I stopped reading the script and my eyes went wide. I lifted up my head and faced him. Looking into his eyes, I gave the most meager shake of my head that I could manage. I was trying to warn him without alerting my dad, who still had his eyes glued to the page.
“I thought I was protecting everyone. I was protecting my dad’s career. I was protecting Kevin, who my dad surely would have tried to punch. I was protecting myself, because I thought one day I’d want to work with this man. Kevin had no reaction and kept his hand there. My eyes went back to the script and I kept reading.”
Dreyfuss said he would later tell others the story ‘at parties, for laughs’, but as he began hearing that more and more people had had the same experience, it was no longer funny.
“The victims in many of these stories were often young men. These admissions became so common that I started to plan on a break in the story just so people could nod and say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve heard this before’,” he goes on. “All of these responses made me realize there wasn’t anything funny about my story. It wasn’t a joke. Kevin Spacey is a sexual predator.”
It’s the latest allegation against the actor, with staff from the Old Vic now coming forward, as well as ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ actor Anthony Rapp, who said that Spacey tried to force himself upon him when he was 14.
Another man has said that he conducted a sexual relationship with Spacey aged 15, which, he alleges, ends with an attempted rape.
Through his lawyers, Space has denied all the allegations against him.
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