House of Cards creator Beau Willimon has responded to allegations that series star Kevin Spacey made an unwanted sexual advance toward actor Anthony Rapp in 1986.
In a statement released on Monday, Willimon called the allegations “troubling” but said he was unaware of any inappropriate behavior during his time on the Netflix drama. He exited the show at the end of its fourth season in 2016.
“Anthony Rapp’s story is deeply troubling. 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,” he said in a statement to PEOPLE. “That said, I take reports of such behavior seriously and this is no exception. I feel for Mr. Rapp and I support his courage.”
In an interview with BuzzFeed published on Sunday, Rapp, now 46, alleged then-26-year-old Spacey invited him to his Manhattan apartment for a party in 1986. (They were both starring in hit Broadway plays at the time.) Rapp says he was the only teen at the party and spent most of the evening in a bedroom watching television. He claims he was unaware the party had ended and he was alone in the apartment with Spacey until the older actor appeared in the bedroom doorway.
“He picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don’t, like, squirm away initially, because I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then he lays down on top of me,” Rapp, who is openly gay, told BuzzFeed. “He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp said. “I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”
Following the allegations, Spacey released a statement on Twitter in which he said he did not “remember the encounter.”
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SOURCE: PEOPLE, Jodi Guglielmi
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