Director defends casting Kevin Spacey amid sexual misconduct allegations

Kevin Spacey was publicly accused of sexual misconduct by fellow actor Anthony Rapp in an October 2017 Buzzfeed News piece detailing alleged sexual advances made by a 26-year-old Spacey in 1986, when Rapp was just 14 years old.

Spacey, now 61, has not acted in a film since.

That changed when 79-year-old director Franco Nero enlisted Spacey to star as "a detective investigating the case of a man wrongly suspected of pedophilia," according to The Times. The Italian film, titled L’Uomo che disegnò Dio, will also star Nero's wife, 84-year-old Vanessa Redgrave.

"I'm very happy Kevin agreed to participate in my film," Nero told ABC News over the weekend. "I consider him a great actor and I can't wait to start the movie."

Nero doubled down over the phone with CNN: "I cast him because he is a great actor."

CNN's Chloe Melas and Toyin Owoseje added that Nero believes the troubling accusations made against the disgraced House of Cards leading man by Rapp and more than 30 others are "false."

While the news is still fresh, the backlash has been prevalent. 

Mark Ebenhoch, one of Spacey's accusers, told TMZ that he found the casting decision to be "absurd."

TMZ added: "While Ebenhoch says he's still waiting for Spacey to publicly apologize and take full responsibility for his alleged misconduct, he hopes producers made sure Kevin's changed his ways and prays Spacey's alleged escapades with young men are a thing of the past."