Kevin Spacey leaned on the words of Elton John during a passionate speech at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
During a Tuesday, May 20, Cannes ceremony that saw Spacey, 65, awarded a lifetime achievement award, the actor took to the stage to relay his thoughts and appreciation, with his words captured via an X video shared that day by Variety.
“I say to you all the most positive vibes, and as my friend Elton John once said, the reason this means so much to me [is] because I’m still standing,” Spacey, who began to tear up during one portion of his speech, said before repeating the title and lyric of John’s 1983 hit single. “I’m still standing.”
Spacey, who has been the subject of sexual assault claims since 2017 when Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey made sexual advances toward him at a 1986 party, also acknowledged the late Kirk Douglas during his speech.
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“My thanks again … Kirk Douglas and his friends and tonight for all of you, for making me feel so welcome,” Spacey told the crowd, who applauded him at several points throughout the proceedings. “I would like you all to raise your glasses and just toast to friendship. Which can get us through anything in this life.”
It was not the first time Spacey had expressed public gratitude over support received from John, 78, and John’s husband, David Furnish. After John and Furnish, 62, both gave witness testimonies on behalf of Spacey during his 2022 trial in the U.K., Spacey said on Uncensored with Piers Morgan that the gesture meant the world to him. (Spacey went to trial after sexual offences were alleged by four men during Spacey’s time as artistic director of London’s Old Vic theater between 2001 and 2013. John’s evidence contradicted one of Spacey’s accuser’s accounts, and in 2023, Spacey was acquitted of all offences.)
Per a report published by The Independent in June 2024, Spacey told Morgan, 60, “You actually just reminded me that Elton was the first email I got on October 30th of 2017 – after the [Anthony] Rapp story had come out – saying, ‘We love you. Whatever you need, we’re here for you.’”
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Rapp’s allegations, the first to publicly accuse Spacey of any sexual wrongdoing, claimed that Spacey laid “down on top” of him in a bedroom at the 1986 party and “was trying to seduce” him. (Spacey responded to the allegations at the time by apologizing to Rapp, 53, for the alleged misconduct via a statement. Spacey also claimed in the statement that he did “not remember the encounter.”)
Spacey added that John and Furnace had provided him ongoing support. “Elton has been there, and David has been there, ever since,” Spacey told Morgan. “What’s most interesting about the fact that they testified in the trial in the U.K. is that I didn’t ask them.”
Spacey concluded, “That’s the kind of friends that I have been very fortunate to have in my life.”
