Dench on Murder On the Orient Express and Spacey on House of Cards | Photos: 20th Century Fox/Netflix
Judi Dench has defended her ‘good friend’ Kevin Spacey at a press conference.
The star was responding to the decision to cut Spacey from the movie All the Money in the World following allegations of sexual assault levelled at the actor last year.
Addressing journalists at the San Sebastian film festival, the Notes on a Scandal actress said she ‘can’t approve’ of the move.
The pair worked together on the 2001 film The Shipping News. The movie also featured Cate Blanchett and Julianne Moore.
Dench, whose husband passed away that year, said Spacey was an ‘inestimable comfort’ and ‘kept me going’ at the time.
‘He is, and was, a most wonderful actor’
She furthermore continued: ‘I can’t approve, in any way, of the fact that – whatever he has done – that you then start to cut him out of the films… Are we to do that throughout history?’
She added: ‘Are we to go back throughout history and anyone who has misbehaved in any way, or who has broken the law, or who has committed some kind of offence, are they always going to be cut out? Are we going to extrude them from our history?’
‘I don’t know about the conditions of it, but nevertheless he is, and was, a most wonderful actor,’ she also said. ‘I can’t imagine what he is doing now.’
Last month, Spacey’s movie Billionaire Boys Club took only $126 (£98.78, €110.06) in the US box office on opening day.
The fallout from allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour made against Spacey cost him his role on the hit Netflix series House of Cards. The first person to make an allegation was actor Anthony Rapp. Spacey apologized while saying he couldn’t remember the incident happening, while also using the opportunity to come out as gay.
