Kevin Spacey and his production companies must pay the studio behind House of Cards more than $30 million because of losses brought on by his firing for sexual misconduct, according to an arbitration decision made final Monday.
A document filed in Los Angeles Superior Court requesting a judge’s approval of the ruling says that the arbitrators found that Kevin Spacey violated his contract’s demands for professional behavior by “engaging in certain conduct in connection with several crew members in each of the five seasons that he starred in and executive produced House of Cards.”
MRC, the studio behind the series, had to fire Spacey, halt production of the show’s sixth season, rewrite it to remove Spacey’s central character, and shorten it from 13 to eight episodes to meet deadlines, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in losses, the document said.
“The safety of our employees, sets, and work environments is of paramount importance to MRC and why we set out to push for accountability,” the studio said.
A representative for Spacey did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. His attorneys had argued that the actor’s actions were not a substantial factor in the show’s losses.MRC stood its ground, pursued this case doggedly, and obtained the right result in the end,” the plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Kump said in a statement.
The 62-year-old Oscar winner’s career came to an abrupt halt late in 2017 as The MeToo movement gained momentum. Spacey was fired or removed from several projects, most notably House of Cards, the Netflix political thriller where for five seasons he played lead character Frank Underwood, a power-hungry congressman who becomes president.