NEED TO KNOW
Kevin Spacey is making his return to television.
The disgraced House of Cards alum, who has been accused of multiple sexual assaults starting in 2017 and was fired by Netflix that year, has now landed a role in an Italian comedy series in which he plays himself.
It marks his first apparent television performance since his removal from House of Cards. In the years since, he has appeared in a handful of films, including Holiguards, which he directed himself (the film has yet to be picked up by a major studio).
Minimarket, from state broadcaster RAI, follows a man who works in a Rome convenience store (Filippo Laganà) and has Spacey as his imaginary mentor. The man apparently dreams of becoming a star, with Spacey as his “artistic conscience and unpredictable mentor,” per Variety.
The 10-episode series follows “the experience of a man who has been on the world’s most important [movie and TV] sets” and “the recklessness of someone who does not [realize] that they have an Oscar-winner by their side,” the outlet reports. It arrives on RAI’s RaiPlay on Dec. 26.
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Filippo Lagana /Instagram
The new role comes eight years after Spacey faced an allegation of sexual misconduct in 2017, before he denied the allegations and came out as gay. Additional allegations have come to light in the years since. Spacey was also cleared of sexual abuse charges in New York in 2022 and of sexual assault claims in 2023 in London.
The BBC recently reported on Nov. 26 that Spacey will face civil claims from three men who allege he sexually assaulted them as he awaits a 2026 court date.
The men claim the actor assaulted them between 2000 and 2013. He is widely reported to have denied any wrongdoing.
Ernesto Ruscio/Getty
The news also follows Spacey’s comments about having “no home” in a recent interview. Speaking with the Telegraph in a feature published on Nov. 19, the actor said he was “living in hotels, I’m living in Airbnbs, I’m going where the work is” and had “no home,” before clarifying in an Instagram video that he wasn’t “homeless in the colloquial sense.”
He added that he’s not one of the “many people” who are “living on the streets or in their cars or in terrible financial situations.”
“And my heart goes out to them,” he said, before criticizing the U.K. publication for “selling out” their own journalist. “But it’s clear from the article itself that I am not one of them, nor was I attempting to say that I was.”
