In the case of Spacey it’s been 30 years of well known bad behavior. 30 years of warning new young guys in the theater to not get caught alone with him. It’s hard to see a rush to judgement there.
The standing of Wagner or many others. is tempered by the passage of time, and of course, fewer disgusting details. A lifetime Oscar was awarded to Elia Kazan, who was excoriated for naming names in the Hollywood blacklist days. Many in the audience refuse to ovate*.
I have no doubt Spacey will be lauded some distant day as a great artist, with his offenses a sad side note. Should he be? As a decent person who is also a longtime fan, I admit I’m torn.
*not a word but should be.
Actually, I hope we’ve changed enough that his future accolades are not at all a given.
As I read up more, I see your point.
I don’t think anyone could have done a better job than Spacey in The Usual Suspects or The Ref or American Beauty, so I think I’ll have to take the good with the bad. It’s sad when great actors sully their reputation this way. It’s no great honour for the whistle-blowers either.
WTF?
The Oscars are supposed to be about acting talent, and so if he was the best actor this year, then he should get the Best Actor award.
Meanwhile, the courts are about punishing the guilty and making restitution to their victims, and if the courts find against him, he should have to pay whatever penalty they decide on.
If this means that an actor has to give his acceptance speech from jail, so be it. They’re two separate things.
Especially since people often conclude your right to be outraged about the violation of your own body is secondary to their right to enjoy movie night without a little twinge of guilt or sadness.
I’m all for separating the individual from the work when possible, but I draw the line at blaming the victims for my discomfort.
No, they’re not, not since the advent of TV. The Oscars are about putting on an awards pageant that millions of people will watch so they can make a ridiculous amount of advertising money. Saying it’s just about rewarding good acting is like saying the Superbowl is just about some guys playing a game.
And society at large is also for modifying behavior. My gawd, if we said that you could behave any way you wanted that didn’t land you in court, things would be awful. We don’t we expect people to treat one another kindly, and most do, but the ones who do not don’t go to jail-- they do, though, quite often face social censure. That actually keeps a lot of people’s behavior in check. If it didn’t, there wouldn’t be all these PSAs telling kids to stand up for a kid they see bullied, and let the bully know you think their behavior isn’t cool.
I seriously doubt Spacey will face a jury-- the statute of limitations probably has passed-- but if he loses out on an Oscar, it sends a message to people who might think his behavior isn’t all that bad.
And that’s the crux of the problem: no one thinks what he did was good, but some people think it was horrific, while other people think it was just a clumsy pass by a drunk guy-- which is an excuse, after all.
The whistle blower gets to be known as the person that destroyed the hero, that made the great celebrity mortal. It’s an accomplishment, for sure, but there’s also a lot of people that will resent you for it.
Yup. Spacey’s just a drop in the bucket. We have a cultural problem with minimizing and excusing this type of behavior. I’m honestly shocked that some posters seem to blame the victims for ruining things by telling the truth. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. I’ve seen and experienced a lot of victim-blaming around this issue in society at large, but it’s like, really, you’re going to throw sexual assault victims under the bus for a damned movie? I’ve seen some cold shit, but damn.
So maybe I dunno how I feel. I tend to consider things like this long after they happen. Having someone like Polansky at the Oscars, for example, would be wildly inappropriate, but I never had to ask myself that question, only if I would watch his films, which I might. Maybe a good compromise would be giving out the award but not inviting him to the event. I mean, that’ s assuming there’s any sort of artistic integrity about the Oscars, but it sounds like there isn’t.
Polansky can’t enter the US, so he can’t go to the Oscars.
No, I know. Polansky is just a good example of an obvious disgusto with a reputation for making good movies. He’s the first person I think about when these questions are raised.
What I meant is that if the Academy really thinks something Kevin Spacey did is deserving of an Oscar, maybe they can give it to him without the ceremony.
I would hope there would be some accounting for the victim’s feelings in all this. It’s hard enough as one of this victims knowing this person who abused you is getting all this recognition and respect, it’s much harder when you’ve spoken the truth and that person still gets all the recognition and respect. I speak from experience, and I can’t help but empathize with the victims. I think as a victim I’d feel it was a slap in the face if the guy was welcomed with open arms to the Oscars, but maybe not so much if he was quietly handed one later.
Polanski.
Thx.