Ridley Scott ‘should be ashamed’ for replacing Kevin Spacey, says Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci has criticised fellow filmmaker Ridley Scott for firing Kevin Spacey from All the Money in the World.

Last Tango in Paris director Bernardo Bertolucci has criticised fellow filmmaker Ridley Scott for firing Kevin Spacey from All the Money in the World after the actor was accused of sexual assault by over a dozen men. Scott decided to replace Spacey with Christopher Plummer, who went on to portray J Paul Getty in the film about the infamous 1973 kidnapping of his grandson, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bertolucci said when he came to know that Scott had agreed to erase all of Spacey’s scenes in the film, he messaged the director’s frequent editor Pietro Scalia, “to tell Scott that he should be ashamed.” He was attending the world premiere of his restored film Last Tango in Paris, starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider, at the Bari International Film Festival. Bertolucci said Scott was succumbing to the pressure in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

“And then I immediately wanted to make a film with Spacey,” he continued, an answer that received a round of applause from the audience. Bertolucci clarified he supports #MeToo and praised the movement for bringing awareness to violence against women around the world.

The veteran director received a lot of flak in 2013 when he confirmed that Schneider, who died in 2011, was unaware about the rape scene which she shot with Brando in the 1972 film, and that the graphic nature of the scene in the erotic drama was improvised on set.