Kevin Spacey testified in a long-running legal matter on Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. concerning the actor’s removal from the sixth season of “House of Cards.”
At the trial, according to multiple media reports, Spacey acknowledged that he had been diagnosed with “sexual compulsive behavior” in 2017 after enrolling in the Arizona rehab facility The Meadows — but that a medical professional told him at the time this wasn’t the case.
“I only found out later that they had, in fact, diagnosed me as sexually compulsive,” he said. “I can’t professionally dispute that, but I can personally dispute it.”
As he went on, Spacey claimed that he found it “very much obvious they wanted me to be a sex addict” after the founder of the facility allegedly asked him to be a spokesperson for sex addiction. He additionally claimed that there were comments found throughout the medical records from The Meadows that he never made.
“They have an idea that I had a British accent, that I have a wife,” Spacey, the unmarried, openly gay actor, testified. “They’re dealing with 29 other men. I have no idea how they take notes. I’m simply saying that’s not something I said because that’s not something I did.”
Spacey’s testimony comes at a crucial juncture in a years-long legal battle between Media Rights Capital (MRC) and its insurer, Fireman’s Fund, over a nine-figure payout. MRC, which produced “House of Cards,” alleged that Spacey’s departure from the show’s sixth and final season was directly related to the actor’s alleged illness, with the star having checked into The Meadows.
“I went there to try to help myself. I had just had a series of things happening in my life where my life felt like it was collapsing,” Spacey said Tuesday. “So I went to take care of myself and to ask questions. I don’t know if I knew at the time that I had a medical illness or a medical condition, but there were a lot of questions I had.”
Fireman’s Fund, however, alleges that MRC’s losses are directly related to the media fallout of allegations of sexual assault levied against Spacey at that time. MRC’s case has already been dismissed twice in court, and the company was told by a judge that the current trial would be their third and final effort.
Thus, MRC pulled in Spacey in a bid to gain access to the actor’s medical history to bolster their case. In exchange for his testimony, MRC would lessen the $31 million judgement Spacey was facing for allegedly breaching his contract’s anti-harassment policies.
At the trial, Spacey read a medical note stating, “Patient will hold himself accountable for the adverse impact of his problematic sexual behaviors on self and others.” The actor called this, and similar comments, “gobbledygook” — including notes stating he sought to increase the “ability to moderate multiple addictive or problematic behaviors” or address his “sexual behavior and boundaries.”
“It’s written in a way that I don’t speak, so I don’t recall saying that specific thing,” Spacey said. “I certainly think that boundaries are an important thing to recognize. I recognize that. I didn’t always read the room right.”
