Actor Kevin Spacey is on the comeback trail, booking his first film role in four years.
ABC News reports Spacey will appear in the Italian film L’uomo Che Disegno Dio, or The Man Who Drew God. The film will be directed by Franco Nero and also star Nero’s wife, Vanessa Redgrave.
“I’m very happy Kevin agreed to participate in my film,” Nero told ABC News. “I consider him a great actor and I can’t wait to start the movie.” Spacey is not commenting.
The appearance will be Spacey’s first in four years, since multiple sexual assault charges and other misconduct issues first surfaced against the two-time Oscar winner.
Spacey lost his role as manipulative President Frank Underwood in Netflix’s House of Cards in 2017, when the first allegations surfaced.
The cases against Spacey included at least 20 young men reporting alleged sexual misconduct by the actor at the London theater, the Old Vic, between 1995 and 2013. Then, in 2018, Spacey was charged with indecent assault stemming from an alleged incident with a teenager on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, during the summer of 2016. He pleaded not guilty, and charges were later dropped when the the alleged victim withdrew and also dropped a civil lawsuit against the actor.
Spacey’s legal woes also included two separte sexual assault cases in Los Angeles. In those, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against Spacey. The statute of limitations had run out in one case and the second alleged victim, a massage therapist, died. A lawsuit against Spacey involving the massage therapist was also dismissed.
In yet another lawsuit, an anonymous man in New York alleged Spacey abused him in the 1980s when he was 14. A judge in that case ruled the man cannot proceed anonymously.
Spacey’s last prominent film role came in 2018 with Billionaire Boys Club. The film did not fare well at the box office.
Since then, Spacey made a public speech at a museum, and kept in touch with his audience in a series of videos playing his character from House of Cards.