Kevin Spacey Hits Back at Guy Pearce After ‘Aggressive’ Behavior Claims

Kevin Spacey came out swinging against Guy Pearce’s allegations that he was “targeted” by his co-star on the set of L.A. Confidential.

Spacey, 65, took to X after Pearce, 57, told The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast about his “ugly” experience on the set of the 1997 crime film.

“I was scared of Kevin because he’s quite an aggressive man,” Pearce said on a Saturday episode of the podcast. “He’s extremely charming and brilliant at what he does... He holds a room remarkably. But I was young and susceptible, and he targeted me, no question.”

Spacey, who said he had been hounded by the press for a response to Pearce’s comments, fired back in a video: “You really want to know what my response is? Grow up.”

Spacey claimed that Pearce flew to Georgia while he was shooting a film there “just to spend time” with him a year after they shot L.A. Confidential. “Did you tell the press that too, or does that not fit into the victim narrative you have going?” he said.

“Here you are now on a mission some 28 years later, after I’ve been through hell and back, to do what?” Spacey added. “I mean, you want to have a conversation. I’m happy to do so… But Guy, you need to grow up. You are not a victim.”

Pearce acknowledged just as much in his conversation with The Hollywood Reporter.

“I don’t wanna use the word ‘victim’ because even though I probably was a victim to a degree, I was certainly not a victim by any means to the extent that other people have been to sexual predators,” he said. “But I did that thing that you do where you brush it off and you go ‘Oh haha no, that’s nothing.’”

Pearce said it wasn’t until accusations of sexual misconduct came out against Spacey in 2017 that the gravity of his personal experience with the famed actor dawned on him.

Anthony Rapp made the first bombshell allegation against Spacey in 2017, accusing the actor of making sexual advances on him when he was 14. Several others came forward with their own accusations against Spacey months later.

Between 2018 and 2022, multiple charges sexual assault charges were filed against Spacey in the U.K. and the U.S. The actor has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

He was acquitted of all sexual assault charges in the U.K.; in the U.S., he was found not liable in a sexual battery case brought by Rapp, while another civil case was dropped.

“I had a couple confrontations with Kevin that got ugly,” Pearce explained on the podcast. “But it wasn’t until everything came to light in 2017… I was in London working on something and I heard this and I broke down and sobbed and I couldn’t stop.”

In an emotional 2018 interview on an Australian talk show, he had described Spacey as a “handsy guy.”

Pearce said he decided to “blurt it all out” because he no longer wanted Spacey to “get away with what he gets away with.”

“I just try and be more honest about it now and call it for what it is,” he said.