Kevin Spacey sex abuse shut down The Usual Suspects set - co-star

  • 06/12/2017

In the wake of a series of sexual abuse allegations against actor Kevin Spacey, his former co-star has revealed that production allegedly stopped on The Usual Suspects due to his "sexually inappropriate behaviour".

Spacey nabbed his first Oscar for the 1995 crime thriller, which also starred Vikings actor Gabriel Byrne.

In a new interview, Byrne told the UK's Sunday Times that Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct by a younger actor, prompting the film set to briefly shut down.

"I mean, he was kind of a joke in that people would say, 'That's Kevin,' but nobody really understood the depth of his predations," Byrne said. "It was only years later that we began to understand that [filming] was closed down for a particular reason and that was because of inappropriate sexual behaviour by Spacey."

Byrne also labelled the House of Cards actor a "bully", and said he reminded him of disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein in their similar "element of absolute abuse of power."

Byrne also said that he recalls hearing "vague rumours" about Harvey Weinstein, though he didn't understand the magnitude of them at the time "I heard that once or twice from two very well-known actresses, but the problem when you hear something like that is, do you pass that on?" Byrne added, "Because if it's not true, it's awful, and if it is true, it's not your job to say, 'Well, I wasn't there, the door was locked, I don't know what happened, I just heard the story.'"

"But I did not know, and many people didn't know, the extent of the violence that he perpetrated on women."

Since the allegations against him have surfaced, Netflix has cut all ties with Spacey and removed him from House of Cards. The news was revealed this week that the series will continue its last season, with Robin Wright in the lead role.

Newshub.