Kevin Spacey will no longer be honored at the 2017 International Emmys amid allegations that the actor sexually harassed then-14-year-old Anthony Rapp.
Rapp came forward with the accusation on Sunday, detailing the 1986 encounter in Spacey’s home to BuzzFeed News when the Broadway star was a teenager and Spacey was 26. Spacey responded to the story on Twitter, explaining he does not recall the incident, and he announced that he now chooses to “live as a gay man.”
The International Emmy Awards tweeted Monday that, given the new information, the organization has rescinded a planned recognition for Spacey.
″The International Academy has announced that in light of recent events it will not honor Kevin Spacey with the 2017 Intl Emmy Founders Award,” the tweet read.
Spacey has been heavily criticized for his response to Rapp’s accusations, in which the Broadway legend claimed that Spacey picked up the teenager, placed him on a bed and made a sexual advance. The “House of Cards” actor, who did not answer several requests for comment before BuzzFeed published the piece, has been accused of deflecting the victim’s trauma and changing the narrative by coming out.
Fellow celebrities have angrily responded to Spacey’s statement, including “Star Trek” actor Zachary Quinto.
“It is deeply sad and troubling that this is how Kevin Spacey has chosen to come out,” Quinto wrote in a statement on Twitter. “Not by standing up as a point of pride - in the light of all his many awards and accomplishments thus inspiring tens of thousands of struggling LGBTQ kids around the world [-] but as a calculated manipulation to deflect attention from the very serious accusation that he attempted to molest one.”
Netflix announced the cancellation of its original series “House of Cards” following the sixth season, which is set to air in 2018. The show’s creator, Beau Willimon, released a statement Monday calling the sexual harassment allegations “deeply troubling.”