Anthony Rapp is the author “Rent”And “Star Trek: Discovery” actor suing Kevin Spacey for an alleged sexual assault from 36 years ago, was fiercely cross-examined Wednesday by defense lawyers who drilled down on inconsistencies between Rapp’s version of the night in question, and the deposition of his then-friend.
Lawyers for Spacey also questioned Rapp’s motivations for suing, and emphasized that Spacey never said anything about sex, and did not try to remove Rapp’s clothes or touch him sexually during the 1986 encounter, according to pool reports from the New York civil trial.
Rapp repeatedly claimed Spacey assaulted and beat him at his apartment party. This was when Rapp was a rising 14-year-old actor, while Spacey was bursting onto Broadway at 26. Rapp said that Spacey attacked him after a party at Rapp’s apartment. Rapp was a rising 14-year old actor, and Spacey was a breakout star on Broadway. “drunk, swaying”Spacey carried him up like a groom “carrying a bride over a threshold”He was placed on a mattress and pinned him, forcing him to squirm away.
Rapp’s friend, in his late teens the time, had said in his own deposition that the night in question began backstage after Spacey’s performance, moved to a nightclub, and ended at an afterparty at Spacey’s Manhattan apartment, where the friend says he was also sexually propositioned by the older actor. Rapp testified that the teens returned home safely after their post-show nightclub outing. The assault and apartment party took place a few days later.
“You knew you had a problem with your story, correct?”Jennifer Keller, an attorney for Spacey, inquired.
“I don’t dispute his story,”Rapp replied. “I just don’t remember it.”
Rapp testified last Thursday that Spacey moved against him. “gratify his own sexual desires,”An encounter that left him feeling shaken and with emotional distress that continues to plague him today. Rapp, who was in the original Broadway cast of the Broadway smash. “Rent,”Current stars in “Star Trek: Discovery”Paramount+. Paramount+.
While being questioned by his own lawyers Wednesday, Rapp said he was jolted when he saw Spacey appear in a movie he saw while still in high school – “I jumped out of my seat,” he said – and during a chance encounter in the bathroom at the 1999 Tony Awards: “I looked at him and he looked at me … I wanted very much to get away.”
Rapp’s testimony was concluded Wednesday. He first made his claims in an interview with Buzzfeed back in 2017. Then, he filed his lawsuit in 2020. Spacey has stated that he will testify for his own defense.
