Ridley Scott didn’t call Kevin Spacey to let him know the disgraced actor would be replaced in the already-wrapped new drama “All the Money in the World” — and Spacey didn’t call him either, the director said.
“If he had called me and said, ‘Hey, look, this is the way it is and I’m really sorry,’ then I’d have handled it slightly differently,” Scott told Entertainment Weekly of his decision to reshoot his upcoming film with Christopher Plummer as oil heir J. Paul Getty.
Scott said that even if Spacey had called, he still would have replaced Spacey in the wake of multiple allegations by men and teenage boys of sexual misconduct by the Oscar-winning actor.
“I would have said, ‘Yes, thank you for calling, but I have to move on,’” Scott added. “You can’t condone that kind of behavior in any shape or form.”
On Nov. 9, news broke that Spacey was to be cut from the completed film, while Plummer would step in to play Getty. Reshoots were to begin immediately so that Scott could still meet the planned Dec. 22 limited opening.
Scott is adamant he will still finish the film on time, although the studio had told him, “You’ll never do it. God be with you.” He also never considered pushing the release date to next year, Scott said.
“Because I know I can deliver,” he said. “I move like lightning. I’m already two scenes ahead. It’s simple! If you know what you’re doing, you don’t need 19 takes. You do one for the actor, one for me. It’s all planned out. When you storyboard, you’ve already pre-filmed the movie in your head — the wide shots, close shots, establishing shots. You’ve gotten some of your weird ideas when you’re quietly sitting, storyboarding by yourself. After a while you learn to trust and listen to your intuition. And I listen to mine. I trust it.”
He also added he will get the movie to Academy voters in time to be considered for awards: “They’re going to see it. I may have to do a couple of technical things to make it land completely technically, but it’s really already done.”
He added, “I’ve done it. I’ve been shooting since Monday [Nov. 20] and in with the editor every night since then. We’re not dealing with celluloid anymore; it’s all digital, and I send [the footage each day] to [editor Claire Simpson] and she cuts it, and I can go in and look after shooting. Everything I’ve shot is already in [the final cut] up through yesterday morning.”
Spacey’s professional life has unraveled quickly since “Star Trek: Discovery” star Anthony Rapp accused him of making sexual advances when the latter was 14 years old. More than a dozen men subsequently came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by the Oscar winner.
Spacey’s agency CAA and publicist Staci Wolfe both fired the actor. Netflix cut ties with the star of its hit drama “House of Cards,” and he is facing two criminal investigations by London police for sexual assault.
Read Scott’s entire interview here.