Lester Burnham: Last News

Kevin Spacey finished testifying on Tuesday in the $40 million sexual misconduct lawsuit brought against the “House of Cards” star by Anthony Rapp. The Oscar-winning actor was cross-examined by Rapp’s attorney Richard Steigman, and remained calm, smirking at points, as he was grilled about his drug use and memories of encountering Rapp in 1986 when they were both appearing in stage productions. Rapp was 14 and starring in “Precious Sons”; Spacey was on Broadway in the Jack Lemmon-led revival of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” The conversation was meandering — Spacey continued to deny Rapp’s claims that he tried to seduce the then-teenager — and at one point even touched upon a key sequence in “American Beauty” in which Spacey’s character Lester Burnham masturbates to an image of his daughter’s best friend bedecked with rose petals while lying in an oversized tub.

Kevin Spacey accuser Anthony Rapp testified Tuesday that watching some of the veteran star’s flicks “felt unpleasantly familiar,” — particularly his seduction of a teen cheerleader in the 1999 hit film “American Beauty.”Rapp, 50, is suing the Oscar-winning actor for $40 million in Manhattan federal court, claiming Spacey tried to seduce him when he was 14 and attending a party at the then-26-year-old star’s Manhattan apartment.Rapp told jurors he was traumatized by the encounter, and uneasy when he watched the “American Beauty” scene where Spacey’s character, Lester Burnham, becomes “sexually involved with a teenage girl.” He said he had a similar reaction when he saw Spacey’s role as a workplace sexual harasser in the 1988 movie “Working Girl.”Rapp, an openly gay actor whose roles include the Broadway hit “Rent,” said he felt “as if someone poked me with a cattle prod,” and “jumped out of my seat.” while watching the film. But Rapp said he felt compelled to watch the movies because, as an actor, “I felt it was part of my job to see them.“As a fellow actor, I thought I had to do my best to get over it,” Rapp said.

Anthony Rapp said watching Kevin Spacey play a suburban dad obsessed with a teenage cheerleader in “American Beauty” was a disturbing reminder of his own traumatic experience with the Oscar-winning actor. The two men are locked in a courtroom battle over Rapp’s $40 million civil lawsuit, in which he alleges that Spacey made unwanted sexual advances when Rapp was 14 years old and Spacey was 26. Watching Spacey as Lester Burnham ogling his high school age daughter’s best friend was “unpleasantly familiar,” Rapp said while taking the stand in New York City on Tuesday. “American Beauty” was the last film of Spacey’s that he watched. Rapp says his alleged encounter with Spacey took place in 1986, but he continued watching the actor’s films because “they were by and large very acclaimed” and he “felt it was my duty to do so.”

American Beauty was a “respite” from the abusive relationship she was involved with at the time.Directed by Sam Mendes, the 1999 movie stars Suvari as Angela, the 17-year-old friend of Jane Burnham (Thora Birch) whose father, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), becomes infatuated with her.Speaking to The Guardian about the role, Suvari said: “I identified with Angela. I knew how to play that role, because I was so schooled in it.