Watching Kevin Spacey seduce teenager in American Beauty was unpleasantly familiar for Anthony Rapp

It was a harrowing and a familiar experience for Anthony Rapp to watch House of Cards star Kevin Spacey play a suburban dad obsessed with a teenage cheerleader in American Beauty.

It was a disturbing reminder of his traumatic experience with the Oscar-winning actor. The two men are locked in a courtroom battle over Rapp’s $40 million civil lawsuit, in which he alleges that Spacey made unwanted sexual advances when Rapp was 14 years old and Spacey was 26.

Watching Spacey as Lester Burnham ogling his daughter’s best friend was “unpleasantly familiar,” Rapp said while taking the stand in New York City on Tuesday (Pacific Standard Time).

American Beauty was the last film of Spacey’s that he watched. Rapp says his alleged encounter with Spacey took place in 1986, but he continued watching the actor’s films because “they were by and large very acclaimed” and he “felt it was my duty to do so.” —IANS