Sexual predator and actor Kevin Spacey recently posted a calculated video with clear intentions to undermine his victims’ narratives and cast doubt on the immorality of his previous acts of sexual harassment and sexual assault. In the video, entitled “Let Me Be Frank,” Spacey evokes his previous “House of Cards” character Francis Underwood, but that aspect is superficial. Everything Spacey has to say is a thinly veiled, all-too-common manipulative rhetoric perpetrators use to invalidate and excuse their clearly wrong actions and portray them as morally grey misunderstandings.
Even the timing is indicative of manipulation. He posted this three-minute YouTube video on Christmas Eve at 1 p.m., a time when many people have their guard down and are feeling vulnerable. While he may be addressing the general public, much of what he says carries the underlying intention of weaseling his way into his victim’s minds and making their healing process all the more difficult. Throughout his monologue, he redirects blame towards his victims, saying they knew they shouldn’t have trusted him but did. He admits to never playing by the rules, then twists the responsibility towards the people he violated by purporting that they “loved it.” His message even seems threatening and invasive as he tells whomever he is addressing that “we’re not done.”
More than that, Spacey takes time to encourage doubt about whether he did or did not prey upon multiple young men, pointing out the smartness of those who would not “believe the worst without evidence.” As if multiple people speaking out — opening themselves up to undoubted public abuse and gathering the strength to be that vulnerable with millions of strangers — isn’t evidence enough.
All that Spacey says echoes with entitlement, from thinking of himself as above rules to boldly proclaiming he would not pay a price for things he “didn’t do” when he hasn’t paid a price for the things he has done. He goes so far as to say “in life and art, nothing should be off the table.” Roughly translated, this means, “I am not a regular person who has to respect others’ boundaries. I should be able to do what I want.”
In all his entitlement, one can gather his belief in his own immunity so clearly that it’s hard not to hear a not-so-subtle dare between the lines: “try and stop me.” I, for one, need no clearer invitation.
