Spacey obtained a lifetime achievement award from the museum, mentioned key roles throughout a grasp class after which launched the 1999 movie American Beauty, for which he gained his second appearing Oscar, to a sold-out crowd. “I am truly blessed and grateful and humbled. And my heart is very full tonight toward the National Museum of Cinema for having had the ‘le palle’ to invite me tonight,” Spacey mentioned, utilizing the Italian phrase for a male physique half synonymous with braveness, to cheers from the grasp class viewers.

“By presenting this award, they are making a strong defense of artistic achievement and for that they should be applauded,” Spacey mentioned. Previous winners of the Stella della Mole Award embrace actors Isabella Rossellini and Monica Bellucci, and director Dario Argento.

The sold-out occasions have been billed as Spacey’s first talking engagements in 5 years. After a number of allegations of sexual assault surfaced, the actor misplaced his starring function on the Netflix collection House of Cards and noticed different alternatives dry up. Spacey didn’t instantly handle the allegations whereas accepting the award or throughout the hourlong class. But whereas noting the loyalty of many followers, he mentioned “the bond I share with them will not be easily broken by unrestrained, ever-shifting mobocratic ties.”

He choked up as he thanked his supervisor Evan Lowenstein for his assist, calling him “the brother I never had.” Spacey mentioned he was additionally “enormously grateful” to Italian director Frank Nero, who employed him for a job in The Man Who Drew God, which was filmed in Turin. Spacey will probably be readily available when the movie will probably be previewed later this week in Rome.

After the grasp class, followers lined as much as take selfies and get DVDs signed. “I actually missed him, and I think he had a great role in the cinema. He made Netflix what it is today,” mentioned Chiara Ottolini, referring to the big success of House of Cards. “I’m so blissful to see that he’s coming again, as a result of now we have to separate the person and the artist.’’

Mery Bicci traveled from Milan to see Spacey, who she regards as top-of-the-line actors ever. She mentioned she would have traveled even additional. “When the scandal happened, I went into mourning because I knew very well that they would ostracize him right away,” she mentioned.

Spacey is scheduled to go on trial in London in June on a dozen prices alleging he sexually assaulted 4 males between 2001 and 2013, together with when he was the inventive director on the metropolis’s Old Vic theater. He has pleaded not responsible. In October, a federal jury in a New York civil case discovered that Spacey, 63, didn’t sexually abuse actor Anthony Rapp when each have been comparatively unknown Broadway actors in 1986 and Rapp was 14 years previous. The jurors deliberated slightly greater than an hour earlier than deciding that Rapp, now 50, hadn’t confirmed his allegations.

Spacey beforehand confronted allegations in Massachusetts that he groped a person at a bar. Prosecutors later dropped the costs.

A choose in Los Angeles in August authorized an arbitrator’s resolution to order Spacey to pay $30.9 million to the makers of House of Cards for violating his contract by sexually harassing crew members.

Elena Cortini, a college design pupil who was seeing American Beauty for the second time, mentioned she didn’t know what to make in regards to the allegations, and most well-liked to deal with the craftsmanship within the 1999 movie. “If he is putting his life back together as he said, good for him,” she mentioned.