Sharon Stone Says Homophobia to Blame for Kevin Spacey's Fall from Grace

Sharon Stone renewed her defense of Kevin Spacey in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying homophobia is the reason Spacey has seen his career destroyed and noting that the conduct the disgraced actor has admitted to and apologized for is essentially the same as incidents of groping Stone has suffered from men who were never called to account for it.

Discussing misogyny in Hollywood, the #MeToo movement, and her own encounters with disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein (which Stone said were physically violent, though not sexual), the "Basic Instinct" star doubled down on her recent comments in defense of Spacey.

"People are mad at me for that," Stone told the outlet. "I said that after being in therapy for seven years, not being allowed to work, losing his home, losing everything, he should be allowed to come back."

Stone then explained her reasoning more closely.

"He's reached out to everybody he's offended and said he's sorry," the "Total Recall" actor noted, adding that though Spacey "grabbed people by their genitals," allegations against him from various men have not included claims that "he's raped them or forced them into a sexual encounter."

"Spacey's career came crashing down in 2017, when actor Anthony Rapp came forward to accuse the actor of assaulting him at a party when he was 14 years old," the Daily Beast recalled in a writeup on Stone's comments.

"Over a dozen more accusers would follow, leading to the highly publicized U.K. trial in 2022, where he was charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent," the Daily Beast continued. "Since Spacey hasn't been publicly accused of succeeding at committing rape, she said, perhaps there's another reason why the industry won't cut him some slack."

Stone suggested that reason is anti-gay bias, telling THR "there's so much hatred for him because in his case it was man-on-man. That's why he's not allowed to come back. Because he offended men."

"But can I tell you how many men have grabbed my genitals in my lifetime?" Stone went on to say. "A lot more than Kevin Spacey has grabbed men's genitals. And none of them has ever apologized to me."

As previously reported, Stone was one of a number of celebrities calling for Spacey's return to film work. In comments she made to UK newspaper The Telegraph in May, Stone called Spacey "elegant and fun," said he is "a genius," and suggested that his accusers had "secret agendas" they were pursuing.

Asked by THR if she championed "canceled people" like Spacey "because you've so often teetered on the edge of cancellation yourself," Stone agreed.

"I've been canceled left and right," she said. "But now I'm back in fashion again. All the things that I said and did in the '90s that were so outrageous are now in fashion."

Spacey himself lamented his exile from the silver screen in a recent interview with Dan Wootton, telling the UK journalist, "Nobody in Hollywood has ever presented a path back for me.... It seems that some are content with just canceling me forever. It's a life sentence."

Business Insider reported that in the course of that interview, the "House of Cards" star responded to fresh allegations contained in a recent documentary, "Spacey Unmasked," which aired in May on Britain's Channel 4.

"Were there times when I would flirt with some of the people who were involved in those programs who were in their 20s? Yes," Spacey told Wootton. "Did I ever hook up with another actor? Yes. Did I make a clumsy pass at someone who wasn't interested as it turned out? Yes." But, as before, he denied assaulting anyone.