Kevin Spacey feels he is on the road to a career comeback months after reaching a settlement with three men who accused him of sexual assault.The double Oscar winner’s once-glittering Hollywood career went into freefall in 2017 when he faced various allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment, which he denied.He was later cleared of sexually assaulting four men in a criminal trial in 2023 and in March of this year, Spacey came to an agreement with three men who claimed they were abused at times between 2000 and 2015.Appearing on Bill Maher’s Club Random Podcast, Spacey, 66, detailed how he felt he was finally coming out of a nine-year Hollywood jail sentence with his return to cinema – and revealed he was still looking for love.’I feel much more welcomed, and I think that things are moving in the direction that we hoped they were moving in’, he said. Maher told Spacey, ‘I’m not going to lie to you, I go by numbers with scandals. If it’s like one person, I’m always like, I don’t know if I wasn’t in the room. There’s too much smoke to be no fire. Kevin Spacey feels he is on the road to a career comeback months after reaching a settlement with three men who accused him of sexual assault The double Oscar winner’s once-glittering Hollywood career went into freefall in 2017 when he faced various allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment, which he denied – pictured May 2026 Spacey responded that while he ‘hit on a lot of guys’ there was ‘no fire, it just wasn’t a raging forest fire. It was a small kitchen fire that could have been put out with an extinguisher.”I was fiercely closeted, I didn’t want anyone to know anything about me and of course I thought I was so clever that no one knew’, he said.’There was so many stories about me, there was lots of talk about that I was gay and I just wasn’t out and rather than the gay community understanding that… I always felt that I was being attacked.’Maher told Spacey that he ‘should have gotten some punishment’ but that the American Beauty star had ‘paid a lot’ in terms of reputation after spending nine years being exiled.Spacey said, ‘I feel less in jail than I did. When people actually start to hear the facts, understand what we won in courts, I think people now look at this and think, maybe nine years has been enough.’ Likening his cancelation to a minor sports game infraction, he said, ‘If I had been a sports figure I would have been benched for seven games. If you’re hitting home runs, they want you on the field.’Spacey added that his thoughts are now focused on his career and finding love, saying, ‘I don’t have a steady boyfriend but I’m in the market.’The actor noted that he had won ‘in every court we’ve gone into with a jury’, and accused Anthony Rapp, now 54, of ‘making up’ a claim the star made an unwanted sexual advance on him in 1986, when he was 14-years-old and Spacey was 26. Maher quipped, There’s too much smoke to be no fire’ Spacey responded that while he ‘hit on a lot of guys’ there was ‘no fire, it just wasn’t a raging forest fire. It was a small kitchen fire that could have been put out with an extinguisher’ Spacey said, ‘I feel much more welcomed, and I think that things are moving in the direction that we hoped they were moving in’ – pictured in 1999s American Beauty, which won him the Best Actor OscarIn 2022, a jury panel in New York City found after a three-week trial that Star Trek star Rapp did not prove that Spacey made an unwanted sexual advance on him. The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Rapp for comment.In March, the actor, 66, came to an agreement with three men who claimed they were abused at times between 2000 and 2015 after meeting the Hollywood star through his position as artistic director at the Old Vic theatre. Kevin denied the allegations. Earlier this year, Spacey agreed a settlement with the three men who had accused him of sexual assault. Two of the claimants were complainants who gave evidence during Spacey’s 2023 criminal trial in London, where the star was acquitted of all charges. Civil trials between Spacey and the three men were due to begin at London’s High Court in October, but on March 13, 2026, Mrs Justice Lambert ordered the proceedings to be paused after a settlement had been agreed.The order said: ‘Upon the parties having agreed to the terms of settlement as set out in the confidential schedule.’It continued: ‘By consent, it is ordered that all further proceedings against the defendant in these actions be stayed upon the terms set out in this order and in the confidential schedule.’ The double Oscar winner’s once-glittering Hollywood career went into freefall in 2017 when he faced various allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment, which he denied (Spacey pictured in Los Angeles in 1996 after winning best supporting actor for his role in The Usual Suspects) The judge made no order as to costs. The terms of the order are confidential and no details have been made available.Cannon was also bringing legal action against the Old Vic, but earlier this month, he settled the claim.Cannon claimed that while working as the theatre’s artistic director, Kevin assaulted him in 2013 at an event related to the production of Tennessee Williams’s play Sweet Bird Of Youth.In 2023, Spacey was acquitted of nine sex offences relating to four men.Spacey, who won Oscars for American Beauty and The Usual Suspects, was dropped from the TV drama House of Cards and removed from the movie All the Money in the World after the first allegations of sexual assault emerged. Ahead of a Channel 4 documentary about the allegations, Kevin said in 2024: ‘I take full responsibility for my past behavior and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologize to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me.’I’ve never told someone that if they give me sexual favors, then I will help them out with their career, never.’An Old Vic spokeswoman previously confirmed the theatre had separately reached a settlement with one of the claimants, saying: ‘Ruari Cannon and The Old Vic have reached a mutually agreed out-of-court settlement, the precise terms of which are confidential.’This settlement has been agreed without any admission of liability, having regard to the costs and impact on all parties of continuing litigation.’