Kevin Spacey Accuser Antony Rapp Says He's 'Gratified' by Harvey Weinstein's Guilty Verdict
Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp, who previously accused Kevin Spacey of making sexual advances at him when he was teenager, is praising the women whose testimonies helped convict Harvey Weinstein on two counts of rape and sexual assault.
Shortly after Monday’s verdict was announced — in which Weinstein was convicted on two of five counts in a New York City court: criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree — Rapp tweeted out his support for the victims and thanked them for adding their voices to the #MeToo movement.
“I applaud the women who bravely stepped forward to help forever alter the conversation around what they — and all of us — have to put up with. Gratified to see some justice being served here,” Rapp tweeted.
RELATED: Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty on Rape and Sex Assault Charges
In an October 2017 Buzzfeed article, Rapp alleged that then-26-year-old Spacey invited him to his Manhattan apartment for a party in 1986. (They were both starring in hit Broadway plays at the time.) Rapp says he was the only teen at the party and spent most of the evening in a bedroom watching television when he realized everyone had left and he was alone with Spacey.
After Rapp’s account was published in Buzzfeed, Spacey issued a statement saying he doesn’t remember the alleged incident, apologizing for “for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior” and announcing, “I choose now to live as a gay man.”
In his first TV interview about the allegation, Rapp said he hoped more victims would feel empowered to come forward with their own stories.
“I could only tell my story, but I knew there were more stories,” Rapp, 48, said CBS’s The Talk. “So I was just hopeful that coming forward, it would encourage other people to tell the truth.”
He added: “I knew it was a risky thing, I knew that he was very popular, and certainly a respected actor, but at the same time I knew I was trying to protect people. And I was incredibly gratified by the enormous wave of support.”
The backlash to Rapp’s accusation was swift: several more people accused Spacey of sexual harassment or assault, and in November 2017, Spacey entered a treatment facility. Spacey has not commented on any of the allegations since Rapp’s.
Spacey was also fired from the final season of his Emmy-winning Netflix drama, House of Cards.
On Monday, a jury of seven men and five women found Weinstein guilty of criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, The New York Times reports. He was acquitted on three other charges.
Although more than 80 women have claimed they were victimized by Weinstein, according to The New York Times, the charges in the Manhattan trial were focused on only two women: former production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi and aspiring actress Jessica Mann.
Another four whose who alleged incidents occurring outside the reach or time frame to bring charges in New York were put on the stand by prosecutors who hoped the women’s experiences would illustrate a pattern of predatory behavior by Weinstein.
The verdict, reached Monday morning by a jury of five women and seven men in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, means Weinstein could be sent to prison when he is sentenced at a later date.
