Kevin Spacey statement posted on Twitter, 15 minutes ago

[Nevernose]

44. Rape might be a harsh term

And perhaps he just made an awkward pass, one which was immediately icky and quickly rebuffed. Those hypotheticals leave out the context.

This wasn’t a young-love, high school senior and her freshman love interest. 18 and 14 is icky and wrong and technically illegal, but hardly worthy ruining people’s lives over. Those are kids that need to be grounded.

From the admittedly brief description we got from both participants, my most generous interpretation from hearing both (admittedly abridged) side’s is that Spacey spent months grooming this kid in a textbook way. Found a kid who would be allowed to spend time alone with an older man, assumed role of caring mentor, provided opportunities to test boundaries with the frequent parties, stick-and-carrot approach to the kid’s career. Just culminated in a way that didn’t work out for him.

He didn’t push it, which is some small saving grace, but a 26 year Old should never have developed that sort of relationship with a 14 year old at all.

To sum up: it’s not a drunken pass thirty years ago that bothers me, it’s the refusal to own it any form, and it’s the missing context of the months seducing an underage kid.