Kevin Spacey Announces First Convention Appearance, Years After #MeToo Downfall
Spacey is mounting a comeback after a U.K. jury acquitted him of assault charges last summer, five years after he was named in the #MeToo movement.
Disgraced actor Kevin Spacey has booked his first major convention appearance following his 2017 downfall in the wake of multiple sexual assault allegations. The two-time Oscar winner will be appearing at the Mad Monster Party convention in Concord, NC on February 16–18.
Mad Monster Party announced Spacey’s attendance on Wednesday, confirming that the actor would be on hand to sign autographs and merchandise. They trumpet the fact that it’s Spacey’s “first-ever convention appearance!” However, the House of Cards star is only available for “pro-photo-ops,” which means “no table selfies.”
Mad Monster Party is largely devoted to metal music and slasher movies; several guests hail from the cast of Halloween 6, but notably, none of them are Paul Rudd. In addition to Spacey, fans can meet and greet embattled Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider; American Pie’s Shannon Elizabeth; and convention-regular Kane Hodder, known for playing Jason Voorhees in a number of Friday the 13th sequels.
Spacey won an Oscar in 1995 for his supporting performance in The Usual Suspects, and another in 1999 in the leading actor category for American Beauty. He was considered one of the most popular and bankable stars in the industry before being one of the first people named in the #MeToo movement.
Since then, Spacey has appeared only in a few low-budget genre movies and several peculiar holiday addresses in which he reprised his famous House of Cards character, Frank Underwood. This year’s edition found Spacey sitting with ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
He has been embroiled in many court cases, and last summer was acquitted by a U.K. jury. Spacey is hoping he can mount a mainstream Hollywood comeback, but industry insiders don’t believe that’s likely.
“His stock went from negative 20 percent to negative 5 percent,” an anonymous publicist told The Hollywood Reporter at the time of Spacey’s acquittal. “The energy around him is hard to come back from in any meaningful way.”