‘Robin Hood’ Star Taron Egerton Defends ‘Audacious Flirt’ Kevin Spacey

British actor Taron Egerton, 29, star of the new Robin Hood movie out this week, has shared his thoughts on Kevin Spacey, with whom he worked on the disastrous box-office flop Billionaire Boys Club, which is reported to have taken in just $126 in opening-day receipts.

“If I had been the subject of his advances, I don’t think that would have been the greatest challenge to deal with,” he told an interviewer for British magazine Radio Times. “I don’t think I would have felt rocked to the core by it. It’s weird because he and I had stayed in touch, he had asked me to socialize. When it all kicked off, I don’t think I was particularly surprised by it. It’s such a tricky, complicated, and weird thing, it’s almost Greek [tragedy], isn’t it?” 

Egerton appeared to suggest Spacey had been unfairly hounded when he added, “He’s just gone now. Gone. We live in the age of the internet maelstrom and one tweet from an anonymous person can bring down a career.”

Some 30 men have made accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct or unwanted advances against Spacey, including at least one man who alleges he was below the age of consent at the time.

Egerton, who stars alongside Jamie Foxx and Jamie Dornan in the new Robin Hood movie and is also playing the lead role in Rocketman, the authorized story of Elton John’s early years, gave another interview to the Daily Telegraph in which he said: “He was never inappropriate with me. There’s a fine line, though, isn’t there, between someone being an audacious flirt and being predatory? I thought he was the former.”

Egerton added, “On the surface level, he’s flirty. He is not my first experience of a flirty older bloke. Even from the age of 17 or 18, I’ve experienced that and I’ve never felt threatened by that, although [Spacey] obviously has made some people feel threatened, and that’s unacceptable.”