Kevin Spacey Accused of Groping Actor Harry Dreyfuss at Age 18

“Jaws” star Richard Dreyfuss’ son shares personal essay on BuzzFeed News

kevin spacey; harry dreyfuss
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Harry Dreyfuss, the actor son of “Jaws” star Richard Dreyfuss, has said that he was groped by Kevin Spacey nearly a decade ago when he was an 18-year-old high school senior.

“He has no respect for consent,” Harry Dreyfuss wrote in a personal essay published Saturday on BuzzFeed News, saying the incident happened in 2008 when he joined his father at Spacey’s London apartment to help rehearse for a play called “Complicit” at the Old Vic Theatre that Spacey was directing.

While reading lines, Harry Dreyfuss said, Spacey put his hand on the younger Dreyfuss’ thigh — and repeated the action even after the younger man twice got up from a couch to cut short the contact.

“I thought, ‘Surely he can’t be coming on to me like this right in front of my dad.’ But his hand stayed there,” Dreyfuss wrote. “Over the course of about 20 seconds, centimeter by centimeter, Kevin crawled his hand from my thigh over toward my crotch. My mind went blank. Suddenly, he had completed his journey and now he had all of me in his hand.”

Dreyfuss said that he caught Spacey’s eye and “gave the most meager shake of my head that I could manage. I was trying to warn him without alerting my dad, who still had his eyes glued to the page.”

He added, “I thought I was protecting everyone. I was protecting my dad’s career. I was protecting Kevin, who my dad surely would have tried to punch. I was protecting myself, because I thought one day I’d want to work with this man. Kevin had no reaction and kept his hand there. My eyes went back to the script and I kept reading.”

He said that he doesn’t remember how long the groping lasted. “What I do remember is that, other than being a shy kid who obviously admired Kevin Spacey a lot, I never once gave him a signal that I would want to be with him in that way,” he wrote.

Richard Dreyfuss told BuzzFeed that he was not aware of the incident at the time — but that he learned of it several years ago from his son. He tweeted his support on Saturday: “I am so incredibly proud of him right now.”

A rep for Spacey did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment, but his lawyer Bryan Freedman told BuzzFeed of Dreyfuss’ accusation, “Let me be clear, Mr. Spacey absolutely denies the allegations.”

Dreyfuss joins more than a dozen men who have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Spacey since BuzzFeed first reported “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp’s accusations of unwanted physical advances when he was 14.

On Friday, Netflix cut its ties to the “House of Cards” actor and canceled its plans to release a Gore Vidal biopic in which the actor starred that was in postproduction. In addition, Spacey was dropped by his publicist and the CAA agency.

On Thursday, Spacey’s publicist released a statement that the Oscar winner was seeking unspecified “evaluation and treatment.”

Harry Dreyfuss said that he was inspired to speak up by the #MeToo movement that has arisen in the wake of mogul Harvey Weinstein’s downfall for scores of accusations of sexual misconduct over the last several decades.

“In retrospect, what disgusts me about Kevin was how safe he did feel,” Dreyfuss wrote. “He knew he could fondle me in a room with my father and that I wouldn’t say a word. He knew I wouldn’t have had the guts. And I didn’t.”

https://twitter.com/harrydreyfuss/status/926921864139517953

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