Kevin Spacey is able to make his “Hollywood comeback.”
The 2-time Oscar-winning actor, 64, took to the stage for the primary time since being acquitted of sexual assault charges in London in July.
The “House of Cards” alum performed a monologue on the Sheldonian Theatre, an architectural jewel inside the center of the University of Oxford, from the play “Timon of Athens” written by William Shakespeare within the early 1600s.
Spacey was introduced to the audience by British creator, political commentator and Post columnist Douglas Murray, who had just finished giving a lecture on the damaging effects of cancel culture in honor of the late Sir Roger Scruton, an English philosopher, author and social critic who died in January 2020 at 75.
Scruton, a government housing adviser, wrongly lost his job in 2019 after he appeared to repeat antisemitic statements and denied Islamophobia was an issue during a magazine interview with the Latest Statesman.
“In an era of cancellation and defenestration, we sometimes forget that we each cannot go on like this and that we’ve been here before,” Murray said. “We all know this because our biggest writers and artists have addressed this query in their very own times. When Roger was going through his own battle with the shallows, I often considered Shakespeare’s rarely performed but great play ‘Timon of Athens.’ Timon has the entire world before him. He’s surrounded by friends and admirers. He’s generous to all. Yet, he falls on hard times and when he does absolutely everybody deserts him. He’s left with nothing and no person, and risks being stuffed with despair and rage. It doesn’t help that he’s shadowed by the cynical philosopher Apemantus, who has warned him that just such a desertion might occur.”
“I am keen on this scene and may prefer to read it,” he said. “But I’m not knowledgeable actor. So, I would really like to ask someone to the stage who’s.”
Spacey, who recently saw his popularity take a success after he was accused of committing sex offenses against 4 men between 2004 and 2013, could have felt an odd connection to the fabric a couple of man deserted by the masses in his time of need.
“Why dost thou seek me out,” began Spacey on the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford’s St. Catherine’s College.
“Thou art a idiot,” Spacey continued while swirling around a drink in his hand. “The icy precepts of respect, but follow’d. The sugar’d game before thee. But myself. Who had the world as my confectionary. The mouths, the tongues, the eyes and hearts of men. At duty, greater than I could frame employment.
“Pride and wrath would confound thee and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury,” he continued. “Thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse, wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the
leopard, wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion and thy defense absence. What beast couldst thou be, that weren’t subject to a beast? And what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation!”
Spacey concluded: “I’m sick of this false world, and can love nought.”
Murray previously delved deeper into the relevance of the piece before making his introduction of the actor.
“By the last yr of his life, Roger had finally been not only honored in his own country but given a position by a conservative government to advise on that the majority pressing of issues: how you can try to construct beautiful housing in a rustic desperately in need of housing and much more desperately in need of lovely housing,” he recounted.
“Roger was engaged in his researches when a young snake of a person got here to interview him and misrepresented what he had said. The indisputable fact that the magazine in query had been one Roger had contributed a column to for a few years didn’t make this pill any easier to swallow,” Murray explained. “Roger was accused — falsely — of virtually every considered one of the trendy heresies, including racism against the Chinese. It was a preposterous set of allegations, and I for one knew them to be so from the outset.
“Yet the conservative government of the day — led by that great lady of iron principle, Theresa May — sacked Sir Roger before that they had seen any greater than a few tweets from the lying reporter,” he continued. “Conservative MPs and ministers called it a ‘no-brainer’ to fireplace Sir Roger and declared that Scruton was just a lot dead weight on the party.”
Murray explained that he fought to get Scruton’s popularity restored. He eventually obtained a replica of the tape of the interview that “the Latest Statesman refused at hand over.” The quotes attributed to Roger were misrepresented and he was vindicated.
“But I do not forget that even at that time of victory, it felt like too little a victory,” Murray recalled. “Roger called me immediately after I published the true account of what had happened and said to me, ‘So, do you think that I still have a profession?’ There haven’t been persistently in my life when I actually have desired to cry with frustration, but that was considered one of them.”
Murray then asked the audience a series of questions regarding the validity of cancel culture.
“Can a society really survive, let alone do anything good or beautiful, whether it is so willing to play these dirty, nasty games? Can any society seriously manage to do anything good whether it is willing to throw away and discard people on mere hearsay? Can we get anywhere, let alone create anything, if we throw away our most talented figures with such ease? Can we truthfully do anything of value if individuals are kicking their feet within the shallows while attempting to drown everyone engaged in anything of import in these puddles?
“It will not be an easy query, but it surely is one which we’d all do well to think on. In fact, like all great questions, it’s one that folks have thought on before,” he said. “I would really like to say two things in closing. The primary is that I learned a lesson in the course of the period I defended Sir Roger and it’s a lesson I should prefer to pass on, especially to the younger members of the audience here tonight.
“At all times arise for your pals,” Murray explained. “Especially once they are right. There’s every reason to achieve this. A lot of them are obvious, but one perhaps will not be. It is that this: It may be the very best or only probability you get to indicate them how much they mean to you. If you happen to don’t seize this chance when it comes, you’ll save the reality of your feelings for his or her funeral or obituaries. Then, it will not be much use to anyone. But in case you defend a friend while they’re alive, you would possibly just give them the slightest intimation of how much you value them and love them — how much they mean to you and to others too.”
Spacey still faces 12 sex offense charges within the UK regarding alleged events between 2001 and 2013. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Earlier this month, he was rushed to a hospital in Uzbekistan after experiencing numbness in his arm and fearing a heart attack.
Kevin Spacey is able to make his “Hollywood comeback.”
The 2-time Oscar-winning actor, 64, took to the stage for the primary time since being acquitted of sexual assault charges in London in July.
The “House of Cards” alum performed a monologue on the Sheldonian Theatre, an architectural jewel inside the center of the University of Oxford, from the play “Timon of Athens” written by William Shakespeare within the early 1600s.
Spacey was introduced to the audience by British creator, political commentator and Post columnist Douglas Murray, who had just finished giving a lecture on the damaging effects of cancel culture in honor of the late Sir Roger Scruton, an English philosopher, author and social critic who died in January 2020 at 75.
Scruton, a government housing adviser, wrongly lost his job in 2019 after he appeared to repeat antisemitic statements and denied Islamophobia was an issue during a magazine interview with the Latest Statesman.
“In an era of cancellation and defenestration, we sometimes forget that we each cannot go on like this and that we’ve been here before,” Murray said. “We all know this because our biggest writers and artists have addressed this query in their very own times. When Roger was going through his own battle with the shallows, I often considered Shakespeare’s rarely performed but great play ‘Timon of Athens.’ Timon has the entire world before him. He’s surrounded by friends and admirers. He’s generous to all. Yet, he falls on hard times and when he does absolutely everybody deserts him. He’s left with nothing and no person, and risks being stuffed with despair and rage. It doesn’t help that he’s shadowed by the cynical philosopher Apemantus, who has warned him that just such a desertion might occur.”
“I am keen on this scene and may prefer to read it,” he said. “But I’m not knowledgeable actor. So, I would really like to ask someone to the stage who’s.”
Spacey, who recently saw his popularity take a success after he was accused of committing sex offenses against 4 men between 2004 and 2013, could have felt an odd connection to the fabric a couple of man deserted by the masses in his time of need.
“Why dost thou seek me out,” began Spacey on the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford’s St. Catherine’s College.
“Thou art a idiot,” Spacey continued while swirling around a drink in his hand. “The icy precepts of respect, but follow’d. The sugar’d game before thee. But myself. Who had the world as my confectionary. The mouths, the tongues, the eyes and hearts of men. At duty, greater than I could frame employment.
“Pride and wrath would confound thee and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury,” he continued. “Thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse, wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the
leopard, wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion and thy defense absence. What beast couldst thou be, that weren’t subject to a beast? And what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation!”
Spacey concluded: “I’m sick of this false world, and can love nought.”
Murray previously delved deeper into the relevance of the piece before making his introduction of the actor.
“By the last yr of his life, Roger had finally been not only honored in his own country but given a position by a conservative government to advise on that the majority pressing of issues: how you can try to construct beautiful housing in a rustic desperately in need of housing and much more desperately in need of lovely housing,” he recounted.
“Roger was engaged in his researches when a young snake of a person got here to interview him and misrepresented what he had said. The indisputable fact that the magazine in query had been one Roger had contributed a column to for a few years didn’t make this pill any easier to swallow,” Murray explained. “Roger was accused — falsely — of virtually every considered one of the trendy heresies, including racism against the Chinese. It was a preposterous set of allegations, and I for one knew them to be so from the outset.
“Yet the conservative government of the day — led by that great lady of iron principle, Theresa May — sacked Sir Roger before that they had seen any greater than a few tweets from the lying reporter,” he continued. “Conservative MPs and ministers called it a ‘no-brainer’ to fireplace Sir Roger and declared that Scruton was just a lot dead weight on the party.”
Murray explained that he fought to get Scruton’s popularity restored. He eventually obtained a replica of the tape of the interview that “the Latest Statesman refused at hand over.” The quotes attributed to Roger were misrepresented and he was vindicated.
“But I do not forget that even at that time of victory, it felt like too little a victory,” Murray recalled. “Roger called me immediately after I published the true account of what had happened and said to me, ‘So, do you think that I still have a profession?’ There haven’t been persistently in my life when I actually have desired to cry with frustration, but that was considered one of them.”
Murray then asked the audience a series of questions regarding the validity of cancel culture.
“Can a society really survive, let alone do anything good or beautiful, whether it is so willing to play these dirty, nasty games? Can any society seriously manage to do anything good whether it is willing to throw away and discard people on mere hearsay? Can we get anywhere, let alone create anything, if we throw away our most talented figures with such ease? Can we truthfully do anything of value if individuals are kicking their feet within the shallows while attempting to drown everyone engaged in anything of import in these puddles?
“It will not be an easy query, but it surely is one which we’d all do well to think on. In fact, like all great questions, it’s one that folks have thought on before,” he said. “I would really like to say two things in closing. The primary is that I learned a lesson in the course of the period I defended Sir Roger and it’s a lesson I should prefer to pass on, especially to the younger members of the audience here tonight.
“At all times arise for your pals,” Murray explained. “Especially once they are right. There’s every reason to achieve this. A lot of them are obvious, but one perhaps will not be. It is that this: It may be the very best or only probability you get to indicate them how much they mean to you. If you happen to don’t seize this chance when it comes, you’ll save the reality of your feelings for his or her funeral or obituaries. Then, it will not be much use to anyone. But in case you defend a friend while they’re alive, you would possibly just give them the slightest intimation of how much you value them and love them — how much they mean to you and to others too.”
Spacey still faces 12 sex offense charges within the UK regarding alleged events between 2001 and 2013. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Earlier this month, he was rushed to a hospital in Uzbekistan after experiencing numbness in his arm and fearing a heart attack.
