Kevin Spacey remained composed during cross examination at a civil trial, repeatedly rejecting suggestions he was not telling the truth when he denied an actor’s claims he made a sexual advance on him when he was 14 in the 1980s.

His evidence for several hours on cross examination by a lawyer for actor Anthony Rapp, 50, went smoothly enough that Spacey’s lawyer did not ask any questions after the examination was completed by early afternoon.

Mr Rapp gave evidence earlier in the trial, now in its third week.

He is seeking 40 million US dollars (around £35.3 million) in damages.

Addressing Mr Rapp’s lawyer as “sir,” Spacey did not seem rattled a day after he emotionally said he regretted following the advice of his handlers to be “friendly and cordial” in responding to Mr Rapp’s claims in 2017 that Spacey picked him up and briefly laid on top of him on a bed in his apartment in 1986 when Mr Rapp was 14 and he was 26.

“In my heart, I did not believe this had happened,” Spacey said of his reaction to the claims. He said he was “terrified” and went along with his handlers proposal of a public statement saying he did not recall the encounter but if it happened “I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour”.

“The whole thing was horrifying,” Spacey said.

Mr Rapp’s claims, and those of others, abruptly interrupted what had been a high-flying career for the two-time Academy Award winning actor, who lost his job on the Netflix series House Of Cards and saw other opportunities dry up. Mr Rapp is a regular on TV’s Star Trek: Discovery and was part of the original Broadway cast of Rent.

Spacey, 63, admitted entertaining Mr Rapp and Mr Rapp’s friend, John Barrowman, one evening in 1986 after they saw Spacey perform in Long Day’s Journey Into Night. But he said if he had a romantic interest, it was Mr Barrowman, not Mr Rapp, who was performing at the time in Precious Sons on Broadway.

Spacey recalled dancing with the then-19-year-old Barrowman at the Limelight club and said he invited Mr Barrowman and Mr Rapp to his apartment afterwards to see his dog.

Once there, Mr Barrowman and Spacey “playfully had a moment together” on his bed in a visit to the apartment that lasted about 30 minutes, the actor said. Mr Barrowman said in a deposition partially played in court on Monday that Mr Rapp was in the bathroom when Mr Barrowman and Spacey briefly flirted on the bed.

“It was a flirtatious and playful moment between two people who were attracted to each other,” Spacey said. “I was captivated by John Barrowman.”

On Monday, Spacey said from the witness box he was sure he was never alone with Mr Rapp, and that Mr Rapp’s claim that Spacey made a pass at him after a party at his apartment was not true.

“I knew I wouldn’t have any sexual interest in Anthony Rapp or any child. That I knew,” Spacey said.