In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Ridley Scott recently spoke about the process of replacing Kevin Spacey in his upcoming film All the Money in the World. During the conversation, the legendary director also suggested that we’re far from finished hearing about sexual harassment in the film industry.
“I think it was about time,” Scott told EW. “Harvey definitely was way overdue. There will still be a few more people out there gritting their teeth who are way overdue.”
Scott spoke in detail about the process of replacing Spacey with in his upcoming film after the Oscar-winning actor was accused of sexual misconduct.
“You can’t tolerate any kind of behavior like that,” Scott said. “And it will affect the film. We cannot let one person’s action affect the good work of all these other people. It’s that simple.”
Scott says he heard about actor Anthony Rapp’s accusation against Spacey while he was at Abbey Road studios working on music for the movie. In addition to being cut out of Scott’s film, Spacey was also fired from House of Cards and Netflix cancelled the release of a Gore Vidal biopic the American Beauty actor was producing and starring in.
Scott said Spacey — who has since been accused by multiple others of inappropriate conduct, such as groping — never attempted to reach out to him. While the director said that had Spacey done so, he may have “handled it slightly differently,” he says he really had no choice but to get rid of him.
“I’d have still done it,” Scott said. “I would have said, ‘Yes, thank you for calling, but I have to move on.'”
Asked if Spacey was well-behaved on the set of “All the Money in the World,” Scott admitted he didn’t really know the answer to that.
“You never see that. But you can’t condone that kind of behavior in any shape or form,” the Alien director said.
House of Cards creator Beau Willimon made a similar statement about Spacey, claiming “During the time I worked with Kevin Spacey on House of Cards, I neither witnessed nor was aware of any inappropriate behavior on set or off.” Several people who worked on the hit Netflix show dispute that, however, calling Willimon’s statement “bullshit.”
Scott is currently reshooting key scenes for the movie with Christopher Plummer taking over Spacey’s role. Despite the unprecedented decision to replace a major actor after the film was already completed, Scott still plans on having All the Money in the World ready for its originally scheduled release date of December 22.
