The Netflix drama House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright as a ruthless and powerful couple on the top-heads of the entire American government, will end after its upcoming sixth season release in 2018 — according to a company’s statement. This one was the first series produced by the streaming company.
Just two weeks ago, Netflix began shooting the final season of the billionaire series in Maryland. Its premiere date is still unclear, but we already know that it’s going to be next year.
The fifth, and for-now last season, was released May 30.
After the fifth season premiered, many people wondered how much longer the series would keep on going. However, after the recent Kevin Spacey’s scandal — as the singer and American stage and film actor, Anthony Rapp (46) accused Spacey (58) of having aggressively advanced towards him when he was a teenager — Netflix announced HoC’s ending, noting that the company feels “deeply troubled” for it. House of Cards’ first season premiered in 2013.
“Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night’s news concerning Kevin Spacey. In response to last night’s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time.” — Netflix and producer Media Rights Capital said on Spacey in a Monday released statement.
When Netflix first announced that Spacey and director David Fincher were adapting a British series and Michael Dobbs’ novel into a US drama, many stateside programmers (including HBO) showed highly interested. However, it ended up on the same streaming-platform with a right-away second season announcement, estimated to be around $100 million.
All of this was in 2011 when streaming was not as important as today, and when filmmakers shifting from movies to television was a big deal. Now, the series has such a range of public, it was nominated 46 times at the Emmys, and won six times to date.
This is not the first self-produced series that Netflix cancels this year. House of Cards follows The Get Down, Sense8, and Girlboss.
Rapp, who’s gay, said that he felt he had to talk about the event that traumatized him thirty years ago after all the allegations over the American producer Harvey Weinstein — recently accused of having sexually assaulted around 60 women of different countries.
‘He was trying to get with me sexually’
This past Sunday, Rapp (Star Trek 2017, Rent 2005, A Beautiful Mind 2001, Twister 1996) talked about this accusation for the first time in a BuzzFeed interview. He spoke of a drunk 26-year-old Kevin Spacey sexually approaching him when he was just 14 years old.
In 1986, Rapp was working at the Broadway’s Precious Sons, while Spacey at Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Both productions were hits among the public, which made the actors attend sometimes to the same celebratory events. According to Rapp, he met Spacey for the first time “at one of those events.”
The 14-year-old Rapp was a very independent teenager. When Spacey invited him to a party he was throwing at his apartment, Rapp accepted and went by himself. He then realized he was the only teenager there, so he felt “quickly kind of bored.” Rapp said he stayed in Spacey’s room watching TV and didn’t realize when everybody left the apartment.
When both actors were alone, the 2000 Academy Awarded for Best Actor picked Rapp up “like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold.” But he didn’t “squirm away initially.”
When Rapp was already on the bed, according to him, Spacey approached and laid down “on top” of him.
“He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp said. “I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”
The Broadway singer remembers that Spacey was pressing onto him and that he was “tightening his arms.” However, he doesn’t remember how long Spacey stayed over him. He said that he could “squirm” away after a short period.
He then entered Spacey’s bathroom, saw a picture of him grasping another man with his arms and thought “Oh. He’s gay. I guess.” Then, he left the bathroom, walked accompanied by Spacey to the front door, and left after the 26-year-old actor asked him if he was sure he wanted to go.
Rapp told BuzzFeed that he saw Spacey again a few times in shootings and events. But every time he did, he felt frozen and without knowing what to do if something similar happened to him again. However, he said that Spacey always seemed like he didn’t remember him or anything related to his apartment’s event.
After of all of this, Kevin Spacey tweeted a statement this Monday morning.
Spacey apologized and came out
These allegations put Spacey in a terrible position. He’s accused of being a sexual assaulter at a time when he was over 18, but Rapp was just 14.
On Twitter, Spacey posted a photo saying how he feels about the BuzzFeed’s article. He says that he respects Rapp “as an actor,” and that he doesn’t remember the event that happened “over 30 years ago.”
Also, he “sincerely” apologized for what would be an “inappropriate drunken behavior,” and for all the things Rapp felt in the past years due to what Spacey’s being accused of.
According to IndieWire, the gay community always suspected Kevin Spacey was gay, and that his sexuality was an open secret within the entertainment industry.
Kevin Spacey’s sexuality is a subject he never discussed. He always said that he liked his privacy and that he would never reveal anything related to it.
In the second paragraph of his statement, he acknowledged again that he’s very protective of his privacy. However, he then continued accepting he has had relationships with both men and women.
“I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live my life as a gay man,” Kevins Spacey said on the statement.
A significant part of the LGBT community has pronounced saying how inappropriate they feel about Spacey’s coming out of the closet after being accused of sexual assault. They worry that some people will relate this event to “pedophile” and violation.
The NYPD has not pronounced after these accusations.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter