It was the beginning of the 70s, the United States suffered its first real political-military defeat and among the rubble left by the war in Vietnam, Americans were called to the polls to choose their new president. Few believed that Jimmy Carter could come out on top, given that he was considered the underdog compared to his Republican opponent. Among the supporters of the democratic outsider there was a boy not even of age. He alternated his commitments at high school with those supporting the electoral campaign, helping the next president of the USA to envelope the letters. In the future, the electoral endorsements of that still unknown high school student, the actor Kevin Spacey, would have a more important weight in directing Americans’ voting intentions. His friend Bill Clinton did not disdain being photographed in his company, mutual respect had been publicly expressed between him and Barack Obama, who had repeatedly mimicked the jokes of the character Frank Underwood, the Netflix alter ego of a Democrat in the White House. From that summit, Spacey fell suddenly and disastrously. The accusations of sexual harassment have distanced him from the Olympus where he had climbed, and from an outsider even his political support has once again involved an outsider. In the next election, citizen Kevin Spacey would like to vote for Bobby Kennedy.
The son of liberal icon Robert Kennedy occupies a distant third place in the polls, where Joe Biden and Donald Trump stand tall. But his 8% approval rating could be an important factor in the hotly contested two-way battle. With a democratic past behind him, in reality his possible electorate seems equally divided between right and left. More than his liberal principles, it is his conspiracy positions which are openly against vaccines that attract the voters’ sympathies. Kennedy had a troubled youth and an adulthood marked by drug abuse. Over the past decade he has become a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement, promoting falsehoods about the risks of childhood vaccinations and anti-Covid protection. He is running in this election as an independent, but in keeping with his family’s political legacy he has been a lifelong Democrat and in April 2023 sought to challenge Biden for the party’s nomination.
Among his supporters there are mostly conspiracy theorists, but also long-time Democrats attracted by the luster of the Kennedys: his electoral campaign winked at a mythological nostalgia for his family, even if most of his members has publicly disavowed his candidacy.
His face is an anti-establishment figurine, and perhaps this also attracted the trust of Spacey, who was badly kicked out of the world of power. “He is a formidable fighter for justice and a loyal friend who is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in. There is much I can learn from this man. When the world turned its back on me, Bobby stepped up.” , the actor wrote on Spacey Unmasked, with new harassment allegations leveled against the actor, in which ten men tell their stories of alleged abuse. “I will not sit back and let myself be attacked by a one-sided ‘documentary’ about me, made by a dying network in a desperate attempt to gain ratings,” Spacey wrote via social media, “I I have repeatedly asked Channel4 to give me more than 7 days to respond to the 48-year-old allegations made against me and to provide me with sufficient details to investigate these matters, but they have refused.”
In 2023, Spacey was found not guilty of sexually assaulting four men, following a four-week trial in London. The Oscar winner was acquitted of all nine charges of violence, which were allegedly committed between 2001 and 2013. But his return to the screens is not so simple and it is not easy to find supporters in the world that had acclaimed him as a divinity . But someone is starting to make their voice heard. “Kevin is a good man of character,” Neeson told The Telegraph, adding that he was “deeply saddened” to learn of the new charges. “He IS one of our best artists, on stage and in front of the camera. Our industry needs him and misses him greatly.” Sharon Stone added: “I can’t wait to see Kevin back at work. He is a genius. He is elegant and funny, generous beyond belief and he knows our craft better than most of us ever will”. The actress then specified that the young aspiring actors “wanted and want to be around him”. Actor Murray Abraham said he would “vouch for Spacey unequivocally,” adding: “Who are these vultures attacking a man who has publicly accepted responsibility for him for certain behaviors, unlike so many others? He’s a good man, I’m on his side. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Director Stephen Fry instead criticized Spacey Unmasked: “Continue to harass and persecute Kevin Spacey, dedicate an entire documentary to accusations that simply do not correspond to crimes. How can this be considered proportionate and justified?”.
The road to major productions still appears to be uphill, but the actor is starting to take steps in the world of cinema again. He will play the devil in the Italian thriller The Contract, signed by former porn star Eva Henger together with her husband Massimiliano Caroletti. Director Paul Schrader would like to entrust him with the role of Frank Sinatra in a biographical film: “Cancel culture won’t leave him alone.”
