Dame Judi Dench has criticized the decision to remove Kevin Spacey’s scenes from Sir Ridley Scott’s movie All the Money in the World .
During the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain on Tuesday, the actress said it was a wrong move, regardless of what Spacey had done, according to the BBC .
“I can’t approve, in any way, of the fact – whatever he has done – that you then start to cut him out of films,” she said.
Oscar-winner Spacey has been accused of sexual misconduct in a series of instances the past year. The first allegation came from actor Anthony Rapp, who told BuzzFeed News Spacey allegedly made a sexual advance toward him at a party when he was only 14-years-old.
Spacey then released a statement saying he had no memory of the alleged incident but apologized to Rapp “for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
He also came out as homosexual in the same statement, saying he had had relationships with both men and women and was choosing “to live as a gay man.” The actor received immense backlash for deciding to come out in his apology, prompting many in Hollywood to distance themselves from him.
‘I can’t approve’: Dame Judi Dench says cutting Kevin Spacey out of films is wrong: https://t.co/TJrFxWdMCr pic.twitter.com/dxC7a8dwCf
— Attitude Magazine (@AttitudeMag) September 26, 2018
The scandal was behind Ridley Scott’s decision to delete his scenes from his upcoming movie and reshoot them with actor Christopher Plummer.
Dame Judi, who worked with Spacey on the 2001 movie The Shipping News, said that the decision could start a troubling trend.
“Are we to go back throughout history now and anyone who has misbehaved in any way, or has broken the law, or has committed some kind of offense, are they always going to be cut out?” the 83-year-old star said.
“Are we going to exclude them from our history? I don’t know about any of the conditions of it, but nevertheless I think he is, and was, a most wonderful actor… and a good friend.”
Spacey’s sexual assault allegations also caused him to be axed from his popular Netflix show House of Cards, and his movie Billionaire Boys Club, which premiered this July, performed poorly at U.S. box offices.
Dench also said she “couldn’t imagine” what her former co-star was doing right now. The actor has mainly stayed out of the spotlight ever since a string of fellow actors and crew members came forward with their own stories of sexual misconduct last year.
Spacey’s publicist Staci Wolfe announced in November 2017 that he was “taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment.”
