Anthony Rapp: 5 Things To Know About ‘Rent’ Star Who Testified Against Kevin Spacey

The Broadway star testified against the Oscar-winner in his $40 million civil suit, alleging assault and battery. But on October 20, Kevin was found not liable in the case.

Anthony Rapp’s trial against Kevin Spacey appears to be over. Anthony, 50, sued Kevin, 63, for allegedly groping the Rent actor’s buttocks and lying on top of him when he was a teen, according to CNN. Anthony took the stand to share his experiences with The Usual Suspects star when he was just 14, in a trial that began Oct. 6. Anthony filed the suit in 2020, citing assault, battery, and intentionally inflicting emotional distress. However, on October 20, according to The Washington Post, a New York jury found Kevin not liable in the case after little more than an hour. “Anthony told his truth in court,” Anthony’s lawyer Richard Steigman reportedly wrote in an email to the newspaper. “While we respect the jury’s verdict, nothing changes that.” Jennifer Keller, an attorney for Kevin, said in a statement to The Post that “justice was done today.”

 

Find out everything you need to know about Anthony here.

1. Anthony has been on Broadway since he was a kid

Anthony has been appearing onstage since he was only 9 years old. The actor made his debut in 1981’s The Little Prince and The Aviator, which closed after only 20 previews, per IBDB. He continued acting in various theater productions, including off-Broadway shows and national tours. Other Broadway roles during his teen years included Precious Sons and Six Degrees of Separation in the 80s, but his big break came in 1996, when he starred as filmmaker Mark Cohen in the landmark 90s musical Rent. 

Anthony’s character serves as the narrator for the show, which won four Tony Awards in its original run. Rent won Best Musical at the 1996 award show. Anthony starred in the original off-Broadway run, and reprised the role for the national tour and the London West End production. He returned along with much of the original cast as Mark for the 2005 film adaptation.

2. He’s also starred in movies and TV

Besides the film adaptation of Rent, Mark has had a successful acting career on-screen. He made his movie debut in the 1987 flick Adventures in Babysitting. He’s also starred in classic movies like the 1993 high school flick Dazed and Confused or 2001 drama A Beautiful Mind. Aside from his movie roles, Anthony also had a major success as Lt. Cmdr. Paul Stamets in the Star Trek: Discoveries series from 2017 until 2022.

3. He first shared his allegations against Kevin Spacey in 2017

Anthony first opened up about his allegations against Kevin five years before the trial in a 2017 interview with Buzzfeed. Anthony alleged that when he was 14, Kevin had invited to a party at his apartment, and at the end of the night put him on his bed, climbed on top of him and tried to engage in sexual actions with the actor. Kevin would’ve been 26 at the time. “I still to this day can’t wrap my head around so many aspects of it. It’s just deeply confusing to me,” Anthony told Buzzfeed at the time. “The older I get, the more I can’t believe it. I could never imagine [that] anyone else I know would do something like that to a 14-year-old boy.”

Anthony said that he’d shared the story with partners and friends throughout the 90s and early 2000s, but 2017 was when he first went public with the allegations. Following the story, Kevin made a public apology to Anthony, but said he didn’t remember the alleged encounter. “I’m beyond horrified to hear his story,” he tweeted. “If I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would’ve been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior and, and I am sorry for these feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.

4. He’s engaged to his partner

Anthony has been in a loving relationship with Ken Ithiphol for years, and he announced that the two got engaged in 2019. “So something happened tonight. I asked Ken if he would marry me and he said yes. I am so very happy and I’m so very thrilled to share this news,” he wrote in a tweet, sharing a photo of him and his fiancé at the time. While it doesn’t seem like the two have officially tied the knot just yet, Anthony has regularly gushed about Ken on his social media, sharing photos and speaking about how much he loves him.

5. He’s a huge baseball fan

While Anthony is primarily an actor, he’s not shy about sharing his love for America’s favorite pastime. He hosts a podcast with Muneesh Jain, called The Clubhouse, where the two hosts sit down with baseball fans to talk about the game. Being born in Chicago, it’s no surprise that Anthony says that he’s a “die hard Cubs fan,” in the show’s description.