Paul Schrader Defends Kevin Spacey, Again: “He’s A Great Actor […] Why Would I Not Work With Him?”

Paul Schrader is in Italy to present a masterclass and receive the Laceno d’Oro film festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

For the occasion, he’s given another no holds barred interview, this time for The Independent. There are some real gems in this writeup — there’s the usual darts aimed at PC (“being politically correct is kind of boring”) and his disdain for “cancel culture” which he says has calmed down in recent times:

There was a point in the #MeToo movement when if a woman accused a man of something, it was de facto true. That has now swung back. If there is someone accusing [an actor of sexual assault], most women will say, ‘let’s look into this and see what is there’. [The accuser] is not automatically telling the truth.

Has he ever worried about being “canceled” himself? “You have to worry about it because it can be done on so little evidence,” he claims. “Particularly at the height of the #MeToo movement, all you would need is someone pointing a finger at you and other people would say, ‘Of course he is [guilty].’ Fortunately, I didn’t do anything to merit that and nobody hated me enough to do it.”

Most notable is Schrader’s defense of Kevin Spacey, one of the key figures of #MeToo, and who in July was found not guilty of sexually assaulting four men following a trial in London. Schrader has defended Spacey in the past, which caused some pushback, and he still remains firm in his belief that the actor should not be blacklisted from Hollywood:

People responded as if I had said I would kick a homeless man … I mean, Kevin Spacey is a great actor. He won two Oscars. He was found not guilty. Why would I not work with him?

Spacey appears to have emerged from his legal troubles unscathed. He’s won two separate cases against him, but nobody wants to hire him in Hollywood. His name has been tarnished. It’s led to the actor now starring in these micro-budget indies, such as “Peter Five Eight,” and “Control.”

If Schrader is so adamant on defending Spacey, then maybe he should hire him for his next film, which may or may not happen. You see, Schrader has been hospitalized three times in recent months with bronchial pneumonia. He’s been plagued with health issues for a few years now, even directing some of his last film, “Master Gardener,” with an oxygen tank.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Schrader’s next film, titled “Oh, Canada,” which he shot and completed in early fall, is what he calls “a film about dying”.

I thought, if I am going to make a film about dying, I had better make it quick.

“Oh, Canada” is an adaptation of his late friend Russell Banks’ 2021 novel “Foregone.” The parallels between the main protagonist’s life and Schrader’s own cannot be denied. This is said to be a very grim novel about a health-stricken artist who comes to terms with his own mortality.

There’s been word that Schrader is aiming to premiere “Oh, Canada” at next May’s Cannes Film Festival. The cast of the film includes Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi and Uma Thurman.