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Kevin Spacey stunned museum-goers in Rome on Friday with a bizarre reading of Italian poet Gabriele Tinti’s poem, “The Boxer.”
It’s unclear what Spacey was hoping to accomplish with the stunt. The actor’s career flamed out in 2017 after he was accused by more than a dozen people of sexual assault. He did get a legal break in July, however, when prosecutors dropped a criminal case in which Spacey was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old busboy in Nantucket.
With that case behind him, the Oscar-winner appeared by the “Boxer at Rest” statue at the National Roman Museum to recite a poem about a broken down pugilist that Tinti said was inspired by Spacey’s career downturn. You can check out a clip of his reading below.
“I shook the country, made the arenas vibrate, tore my opponents to shreds,” Spacey read. “I lit up the darkness, collected insults, compelled applause. Not everyone knew how to do this. None of you. On the other hand life is not frightening for those who have never taken a risk.”
The actor’s team apparently alerted media that there would be a seemingly impromptu reading and promised certain outlets sit-down interviews with Spacey that didn’t materialize.
Barbie Latza Nadeau, a correspondent for The Daily Beast who witnessed the performance, described it as “unapologetic.”
“But the poetry reading was as much a confession as a moment of acting, it seemed,” she wrote. “As his voice rang out in front of no more than 50 surprised museum goers and selected guests, it was clear that while he may have fallen from grace for the alleged sexual assaults he did not feel any apparent remorse.”
Spacey has previously made strange plays for attention. On Christmas Eve, he posted a video in which he channeled his House of Cards character Frank Underwood and urged viewers not to “rush to judgement.”
