Kevin Spacey has made a rare appearance in Cannes at the Better World Fund Gala, where he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in film and TV.
During his acceptance speech, the actor, 65, quoted Elton John and said he was "still standing" – appearing to allude to making headlines over the years after he was accused of alleged sexual misconduct by various men, including actor Anthony Rapp.
Spacey was recently cleared of nine sexual assault charges in a UK court.
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He has previously denied all allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
In his speech on Tuesday evening, with part of it being shared by Variety on X, the House of Cards star said to the crowd: "And as my friend Elton John once said, the reason this means so much to me [is] because I'm still standing."
"I'm still standing," he repeated, referring to the music legend's 1983 hit, I'm Still Standing.
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"I would like you all to raise your glasses and just toast to friendship. Which can get us through anything in this life."
Variety also reports that Spacey, who appears in new film The Awakening, added: "Who would have ever thought that honouring someone who has been exonerated in every single courtroom he's ever walked into would be thought of as a brave idea."
His appearance mark the actor's first visit to Cannes since 2016, and the gala dinner is a breakaway event not officially sanctioned by the festival.
According to The Telegraph UK, the Cannes Film Festival did not invite Spacey to the festival and a statement said that the gala event has "no affiliation whatsoever to the festival".
It was reported in February 2025 that another alleged sexual abuse claim was lodged against Spacey.
Actor Ruari Cannon is suing Spacey and two organisations connected to London's Old Vic theatre, where Spacey reportedly worked as an artistic director from 2003 to 2015.
Three months ago, Guy Pearce alleged he was "targeted" by fellow actor Spacey and "scared" of him on set of their 1997 film, L.A. Confidential.
The Australian actor claimed on The Hollywood Reporter's podcast Awards Chatter that he had "brushed off" his experiences with Spacey, but "sobbed" when Spacey made headlines around 2017 when he was accused of alleged sexual misconduct by various men, including actor Anthony Rapp.
When asked about Spacey on the podcast, Pearce, 57, said: "I did that thing a lot of people do."
But he did not specify exactly what happened.
"I don't want to use the word victim... Even though I probably was a victim to a degree, I was certainly not a victim by any means to the extent that other people have been to sexual predators," he continued.
"But I did that thing that you do where you brush it off and go, 'oh, no that's nothing...' and I did that for five months.
He claimed Spacey would "dump him like a hot potato" when actor Simon Baker was on set.
He claimed he had confronted Spacey a few times.
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In a video shared on his official X account, Spacey hit back at Pearce and captioned it: "Grow up, Guy Pearce. You are not a victim."
"You really want to know what my response is? Grow up. Did you also, by the way, tell the press that a year after we shot L.A. Confidential, you flew to Savannah, Georgia, while I was shooting Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, just to spend time with me?"
"I mean, did you tell the press that, too? Or does that not fit into the victim narrative you have going?"
"I apologise that I didn't get the message that you don't like spending time with me. I mean, maybe there was another reason. I don't know. But that doesn't make any sense that you would have just been leading me on, right?" he added in part of the message.
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Title: Kevin Spacey returns to spotlight to receive award at Cannes gala
Sourced From: celebrity.nine.com.au/latest/kevin-spacey-cannes-speech-message-still-standing-quotes-elton-john/e6aa81e9-d88c-4ce2-bdfb-6596b171d6d2
Published Date: Wed, 21 May 2025 04:05:00 GMT
