Richard Dreyfuss and Kevin Spacey are both Oscar winners who were once popular movie stars and hailed as two of the most talented actors in Hollywood. But over the years they have proven themselves to be problematic men whose life choices have arguably hurt their careers and left them struggling financially.
Now comes a strange, sad story about how the actors’ 2009 professional collaboration figured into Spacey’s MeToo-era downfall and led to Dreyfuss becoming estranged from his three adult children.
The story comes from Dreyfuss’ journalist son, Ben Dreyfuss, who recently revealed on social media and on Substack that his 78-year-old father is broke, as well as estranged from him, his sister Emily and his brother Harry, USA Today reported.
“Everyone assumes my siblings and I are wealthy from our dad and we’re all a bit too uncomfortable to make it clear, but we have no money from my dad,” Ben Dreyfuss wrote on X, USA Today reported last week. “My dad has no money. If he did, we wouldn’t get it since we’ve been estranged ever since some complicated family drama to do with MeToo.”
Ben Dreyfuss, a former editor for Mother Jones magazine, explained that the MeToo family drama had to do with Harry Dreyfuss coming forward in November 2017 to allege that Spacey groped him when he was 18. Harry Dreyfuss wrote about the alleged incident in an essay for BuzzFeed News, a few days after Spacey was hit with the first of multiple sexual misconduct allegations, which started with actor Anthony Rapp accusing the “American Beauty” star of making a sexual advance at him when he was 14.
Harry Dreyfuss said his incident with Spacey occurred when Spacey was directing his father in a play at the The Old Vic theater in London. Harry Dreyfuss wrote in BuzzFeed News: “It happened one night when the three of us were alone in Kevin’s apartment rehearsing my father’s lines. My father didn’t see, and I didn’t tell him about the incident for many years.” Harry Dreyfuss said that Spacey repeatedly put his hand on his thigh and moved it towards his crotch while his father was focused on reading the script.
At the time, Ben Dreyfuss was managing his father’s Twitter account, and wrote a post from that account voicing support for his brother coming forward about the Spacey allegations. The post said, “I love my son @harrydreyfuss more than I could explain with all the words in the world. And I am so incredibly proud of him right now.”
Eight years later, Ben Dreyfuss explained on X that this post “prompted someone to MeToo my dad. He blames us for that. This led to years of acrimony.”
After Harry Dreyfuss made the allegations against Spacey, the actor’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, issued a statement denying his account, USA Today also reported. “Let me be clear, Mr. Spacey absolutely denies the allegations,” Freedman said.
Spacey has continued to deny he ever assaulted anyone, even as he faced multiple criminal investigations. In some cases, he was not charged, and in others the charges against him were dropped. He was found not liable in a 2022 lawsuit brought by Rapp, Entertainment Weekly reported. The next year, a jury in London acquitted him of charges of sexually assaulting four men. Despite these legal victories, Spacey recently told The Telegraph that he has struggled to find acting work, has been forced to pay staggering attorneys’ fees and has effectively been left homeless, Entertainment Weekly reported.
Meanwhile, Dreyfuss faced public allegations from Los Angeles-based writer Jessica Teich, who had been watching the fallout from Harry Dreyfuss’ claims against Spacey. In the mid-1980s, Teich said in an interview with Vulture, that she met Dreyfuss while working as a researcher and junior writer on a TV show he was producing.
“When I read about his support for his son, which I would never question, I remember thinking, ‘But wait a minute, this guy harassed me for months,’” Teich told Vulture. “He was in a position of so much power over me, and I didn’t feel I could tell anyone about it. It just seemed so hypocritical.” Teich also said that Dreyfuss exposed himself to her.
Dreyfuss denied Teich’s allegations, while Ben Dreyfuss said he never believed her “stupid idiot story,” according to USA Today. But even though Ben Dreyfuss backed his father, “It didn’t matter because it was right around that time when all of this was going on crazy. Anyways, it all led to fights for years and then in 2022, it blew up to the point of (not) speaking anymore.”
Ben Dreyfuss said that he has “spent years trying to repair” the relationship, but his father is “not going to ever meet me halfway, and I’m tired of being quiet about it,” USA Today reported. He added: “I encourage you if you meet my father to ask him for his version. I’m curious to know what it is.”
On his Substack earlier this week, Ben Dreyfuss shared a lengthy email exchange he had with his father in 2024, in which they both write about their differences and a fight they had a restaurant.
“I’m your son. I don’t get it. Don’t you want to fix it? I desperately want to fix it with you,” Ben Dreyfuss wrote. In response, the “Jaws” star wrote in all-caps that his two sons and daughter all lied about how they really hated him. He also said he would never give his oldest son any money, even if he won the lottery. “I WILL HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO SEND TO YOU BUT I WON’T. NA-NA-NANA-NA,” Dreyfuss said.
In an email to his father, Ben Dreyfuss admitted that he struggled with people assuming that he’s “a rich little brat whose father got him his jobs and pays his rent.” Ben Dreyfuss told his father that he never corrected this “falsehood.” Prior to his recent social media posts, Ben Dreyfuss also invited that he “never said anything bad” his father in public.
“I won’t/ I don’t want your money which you don’t have,” Ben Dreyfuss told his father. “What I want is your affection and love. It’s pathetic. I am pathetic.”