The story goes that it took some arm twisting to get Gabriel Byrne to sign on to star in “The Usual Suspects.” At the time, both screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and director Bryan Singer were relative newcomers to the game, but once he met them, he was sold on their vision. But even as Byrne was convinced, he nearly dropped out again, until the filmmakers could accommodate filming in Los Angeles, where the actor needed to stay, as he was dealing with some personal problems at the time. However, it was not Byrne who would be the spanner in the works.
There have already been multiple accounts and allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Kevin Spacey, and now another one has arrived. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Bryne says Spacey caused a temporary production halt in the middle of filming “The Usual Suspects.”
“I did not know honestly then the extent of his violence,” the actor said.
“I mean, he was kind of a joke in that people would say, ‘That’s Kevin,’ but nobody really understood the depth of his predations,” Byrne added. “It was only years later that we began to understand that [filming] was closed down for a particular reason and that was because of inappropriate sexual behavior by Spacey.”
One wonders how many other projects Spacey was involved in were interrupted to deal with the actor’s behavior; it’s certainly unfortunate it has taken so longer for his victims to be acknowledged. As for the legacy of “The Usual Suspects” (which pales in comparison to those still dealing with their unwanted interactions with Spacey), it’s starting to dim, not just due to Spacey, but also Singer, whom many expect to be the subject of a major exposé any moment now…. [Deadline]