Judi Dench opened up about where her friendships with Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein stand following their respective scandals.
“Kevin has been exonerated,” Dench, 90, said in an interview with The Radio Times published on Sunday, December 7. “And I hear from Kevin, we text.”
Dench and Spacey, 66, worked together on the 2001 film The Shipping News. The pair formed a friendship as Spacey was by Dench’s side after her husband Michael Williams’ death that same year.
In 2017, Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making an unwanted sexual advance toward him in 1986 when he was a minor. Spacey denied the accusations. Following the allegations, the American Beauty star was dropped from Netflix’s House of Cards and other projects.
Five years later, Spacey was found not liable in a $40 million sexual assault lawsuit brought against him by Rapp. In 2023, the actor was cleared by a jury of all charges in a U.K. sexual assault trial regarding allegations by four additional men.
Dench, also shared her sympathies toward Weinstein while speaking to The Radio Times, whom she worked with multiple times in her career. (The disgraced film producer, who was the center of the #MeToo campaign in 2017, was accused of harassment, abuse and rape by multiple women. Weinstein has denied the allegations.)
“I saw a bit of film of Harvey walking with two sticks and you think, ‘Well…’ ‘I knew Harvey and I knew him well and worked with him, and I had none of that experience — very fortunately for me,’ Dench told the outlet on Sunday. “I imagine he’s done his time. I don’t know, to me it’s personal — forgiveness.”
Weinstein and Dench worked together on several projects, including Mrs. Brown, Shakespeare in Love, Mrs. Henderson Presents and Philomena.
In February 2020, Weinstein was found guilty of rape and sexual assault charges in New York and sentenced to 23 years in prison. Two years later, Weinstein went to trial for misconduct claims in California. He was found guilty and sentenced to 16 additional years in jail.
Four years after Weinstein’s verdict in New York, the state’s Court of Appeals overturned his rape convictions in the state because of “egregious errors” of procedure after the judge allowed victims to testify about allegations that were not part of the specific case. A retrial was subsequently ordered. Weinstein remained behind bars due to his California conviction, which was not affected.
Kevin Spacey leaned on the words of Elton John during a passionate speech at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. During a Tuesday, May 20, Cannes ceremony that saw Spacey, 65, awarded a lifetime achievement award, the actor took to the stage to relay his thoughts and appreciation, with his words captured via an X video […]
Earlier this year, a jury found Weinstein guilty on one charge of criminal sexual act against former TV production assistant Miriam Haley and not guilty of the same charge involving former model Kaja Sokola. However, on the final charge involving Jessica Mann, a judge declared it as a mistrial in June. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the “jury foreperson refused to return to the jury room Thursday after saying he faced threats from other jurors.”
Weinstein has continued to maintain his innocence. In an on-camera interview with podcaster Candace Owens in May, Weinstein shared he was willing to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence.
“I did not commit these crimes. I swear that before God and the people watching now and on my family,” he said.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
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