Actor Kevin Spacey shared a message to his fans on Christmas Eve, imploring anyone who is contemplating suicide to reconsider.
In a YouTube video titled “1-800-XMAS,” the former House of Cards actor said he wished to “acknowledge” the pain of people struggling during the coronavirus pandemic and asked anyone who is thinking of taking their own lives to “not take that step.”
“Heartbreakingly, so many have talked about things having gotten so bad for them that they’ve contemplated taking their own lives,” Spacey said.
Spacey noted in the video he has a “lot more time” to interact with those who have reached out to him during the pandemic, appearing to allude to how his career was effectively ended after a string of sexual abuse allegations emerged three years ago.
In September, Spacey was sued by the actor Anthony Rapp and an anonymous man of sexual offenses in the 1980s, when the two persons were both underage. Rapp first accused Spacey in 2017. Spacey was also accused of groping an 18-year-old man at a bar in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 2016, but that case was ultimately dropped last year when the accuser chose to exercise his Fifth Amendment right not to testify.
“I promise you there is a path and that at this time during this holiday and beyond, even if you don’t feel it, there are people out there who understand and can help,” Spacey added. “You are not alone.”
Spacey’s comments echo recent sentiments shared by people who have lost a loved one to suicide during the pandemic. Polls taken on the subject have found that a larger-than-usual percentage of people in the United States are contemplating suicide after an unprecedented year of economic and social lockdowns throughout the country.
Spacey’s video, published on Christmas Eve, is a marked shift in tone from last year’s publication of “KTWK (Kill Them With Kindness),” a video uploaded on Dec. 24, 2019, in which Spacey was seen stoking a roaring fireplace adorned with Christmas stockings before telling his fans to “go on the attack” if someone did something against them.
