Kevin Spacey ‘plans his comeback’ over dinner with Trevor Nunn

Kevin Spacey has been overheard plotting his theatrical comeback with Sir Trevor Nunn, it has been reported.

The Hollywood actor is hoping to resume his career after being cleared of all charges in his sexual assault trial.

On Monday night, according to The Fence magazine, Spacey dined with Sir Trevor at the Colony Grill Room in The Beaumont Hotel, Mayfair.

The magazine reported that “the pair began with champagne, toasting Spacey’s recent courtroom successes”.

It went on to claim that the two friends spent much of their evening discussing the possibility of Spacey running a British regional theatre. He previously spent 11 years as artistic director of London’s Old Vic, stepping down in 2015.

“Nunn praised [Spacey’s] innate connection with audiences. Specifically, a plan involving the Hollywood superstar taking on a regional British theatre as part of his redemption arc was discussed,” the magazine claimed.

“So, if you’re in a cash-strapped repertory theatre somewhere in the provinces, then a mysterious benefactor might well be coming your way soon.”

Spacey was dropped by Hollywood and the theatre world after allegations were made against him.

The first allegation was made in 2017 by an actor, Anthony Rapp, who claimed that Spacey made sexual advances towards him when he was 14. Spacey said he had no memory of the incident but apologised “for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour”. Mr Rapp launched a civil claim against Spacey for $40 million in damages. Last year, a jury in Manhattan concluded that the case had not been proven.

That same year, Spacey was cut from a Ridley Scott film, All the Money in the World, in which he had a leading role as billionaire J Paul Getty. At great expense, Spacey was excised from every scene and replaced by Christopher Plummer.

Last week, Spacey wept in court as he was cleared of all charges. Jurors at Southwark Crown Court returned not guilty verdicts on nine sexual offence charges relating to four men between 2001 and 2013.

The actor said outside court: “I imagine that many of you can understand that there is a lot for me to process after what just happened today.

“But I would like to say that I am enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts carefully before they reached their decision and I am humbled by the outcome.”

Sir Trevor and Spacey first collaborated in 2005, when the former directed Spacey in Richard II at the Old Vic.

Four years later, they reunited on a production of Inherit the Wind. Sir Trevor said at the time: “Some people are theatre animals, some people are not. You will find many fine actors in movies who will never go near a theatre. But Kevin is totally a theatre animal.”

Sir Trevor was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company for 18 years, from 1968 to 1986, and then head of the Royal National Theatre from 1997 to 2003.

During his time at the helm of the Old Vic, Spacey said that theatre was his first love and described Britain as his home.

Discussing his decision to take the Old Vic job, he said: “I was thinking about Laurence Olivier and about what he did when he started the National Theatre. Then I walked down the four or five blocks to [the Old Vic], looked up and thought: in your heart of hearts, what you have wanted to do since you were 13-years-old is run a theatre.”