EXCLUSIVE: 'I don't want n***ers on my set anymore!' Security guards who worked on House of Cards claim their company was let go after Kevin Spacey 'refused to acknowledge or shake hands with predominantly black staff'
- Earl Blue's company VIP Protective Services was hired to manage on-set security during season one filming of House of Cards in 2012
- Blue, 51, claims Kevin Spacey refused to shake hands with his 'predominantly black staff' and would not acknowledge them when they greeted him
- Spacey allegedly complained to his personal security manager that he did not 'want n*ggers watching my trailer' when he saw black guards watching the video
- When the actor was introduced to the security staff he allegedly looked them 'up and down' and walked away from them
- When Blue raised his concerns with set managers he says they referred to Spacey as 'The powers that be' and told him 'we've got to keep him happy.'
- Blue has done security work for Marvel and Oprah Winfrey
A security company boss has accused Kevin Spacey of racism claiming the disgraced actor refused to shake hands with his predominantly black employees while on the set of House of Cards.
Earl Blue, 51, the head of VIP Protective Services, was hired by Knight Takes King Productions to manage on-set security during season one filming of the Netflix series in 2012.
He claims Spacey, who played lead character Frank Underwood in House of Cards, refused to acknowledge the black team members and even made racial slurs.
Blue said a group of black security guards were watching the trailer for the show when he heard the actor tell his personal security manager: 'I don't want n***ers watching my trailer.'
When Blue raised concerns with set managers about Spacey, who was referred to as 'The Powers That Be', he was told: 'That's just the way he is; we've got to keep him happy.'
And despite producers allegedly telling VIP Protective Services - who have provided security services for HBO in the past - that they were pleased with their work, their $1.1 million contract was not renewed.
Scroll down for video
Disgraced actor Kevin Spacey, who played lead role Frank Underwood in Netflix's House of Cards, has been accused of being racists to black security staff on the set of the show
Earl Blue, 51, (pictured right with his business partner William Spencer) says his company VIP Protective Services was hired by Knight Takes King Productions to manage security on the set of the show in 2012, but were not signed to work again after season one
Breaking his four-year silence, dad-of-three Earl, who plans to sue Spacey, claims the fallout resulted in his business, which employs 40 guards, losing millions of dollars in revenue.
One of his employees, supervisor Eric Lyles, 47, corroborated Blue's allegations and claimed Spacey also refused to shake his hand or acknowledge him.
The pair fear dozens more will have suffered discrimination at the hands of the Hollywood star, who has separately been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen men.
Blue, from Annapolis, Maryland, is a married Navy veteran who served for 11 years before going into security. He said: 'I was a tremendous fan of the man but now I am disgusted by him.
'I lost faith that I am in the right job after the contract was terminated. I questioned myself for months. What could I have done differently?
'Then I came to the realization that I did everything I was supposed to do, I was just dealing with a racist man.
'I sat on it for four years because I believe in confidentiality but when it comes to the point where people are being harmed, enough is enough.
'I realized he was getting worse and worse.'
Blue says he knew he 'might have a situation' with Spacey on the first day of filming in Baltimore when he and Lyles were introduced to the actor.
Eric Lyles (left) another employee, also claimed Spacey refused to shake hands with staff and did not acknowledge them when they greeted him on set. Above some of the security team are pictured with Oprah at the wrap party for her HBO show
The company was hired in April 2013 but Earl claims the contract was not renewed after the first season despite being told the production team was 'pleased' with their work
VIP Protective Services previously provided security work for HBO
He said: 'The locations manager wanted to introduce him to me and my supervisor for the company and then meet a police officer who was handling the police situation.
'So Spacey comes out of the trailer and the locations manager says, "Kevin, I just want to introduce you to the security team." He introduced me, the supervisor, and the policeman by name.
'Kevin is standing right next to me. He looks me up and down, looks at my supervisor up and down, and reaches across us to shake the hand of the police officer and then walks away.
'We are all standing there looking at each other like, "OK, that was awkward."
'From that point on we had a security officer posted outside of his trailer and my security force is predominantly African American.
'Every time he walked back he would look at this black officer but he wouldn't even speak.
'He never spoke to my security guards but he was talking to everyone else. He even talked to the location manager that tried to introduce us to start with.
'He talked to all the police officers, laughing and joking with them,' Blue said.
Blue's employee Lyles, a supervisor at VIP Protective Services who has worked in the industry for 17 years, also recalls the alleged incident.
He said: 'I always meet the stars and see what they're like, what their likes and dislikes are.
'When I went to meet Mr Spacey to say hello to him, I went to extend my hand to him to shake his and he didn't want to shake my hand.
The production company allegedly told Blue they wanted to go 'in a different direction' after they had a meeting with Spacey. Blue (pictured right with business partner William Spencer) claims that since his contract ended his business has been 'operating at a loss'
'I have never had that problem before.'
As company boss, Blue says he would usually position himself next to the main talent, so he was stationed around 15 to 20 feet from Spacey's trailer.
He claims that every time the actor left to go on set, he would lock the door behind him and start to walk away before turning around and checking the door a second time.
Blue, who has a degree in Digital Media Forensics from John Hopkins University, said: 'He would look at me, walk back to his trailer and check to make sure the door was locked.
'Over the course of that day I started laughing at him. He did it every single time he left his trailer - at least a dozen times.
'He obviously had some uneasiness about me being near the trailer. I would smile at him and even speak, say "good morning" or "good afternoon." But he would never reply.
'I have experienced this before. I have been black my whole life and I can tell when a person is not looking at me as a person but they are looking at me as a color.
'They are coming to a conclusion about what type of person I am.
'But I'm there to do a job and it doesn't matter if you speak to me, I'm going to do that job. So we kept filming.'
Determined to do a good job, Blue claims he regularly changed the guard who was positioned outside Spacey's trailer - but the actor found other things to complain about.
Blue says Spacey raised various concerns with his personal security outfit, who acted as a go-between the actor and VIP Protective Services.
The security guard who was stationed 15-20 ft from Spacey's trailer said the actor would often 'lock the door behind him' any time he left. Above Spacey is pictured with his co-star Mahershala Ali
Reg E. Cathey, played Freddy Hayes, a lowly dishwasher in House Cards. He later became Spacey's character's closest friend
'He started nit-picking about the uniforms, so we changed the uniforms,' he said.
'Then he would have his security come over and ask about a guard: 'Why is that guard over there and not over here?'
'I spoke to the production manager and it was always the same thing; "That's just the way he is, we've got to make him happy."
When the contract came to an end in April 2013, Blue says he was called into a meeting with the location manager, business partner, and producer Iain Paterson.
He claims the representatives of Knight Takes King told him they were 'really pleased' with VIP Protective Services' handling of season one and that there were 'no complaints.'
'There was no theft or damage and they were pleased as punch with the work we had done,' Blue said.
But Blue says that after separate meeting between production company staff, where Kevin Spacey was present via a phone link, their contract was terminated.
He says a production manager later told him Spacey had announced over speaker that 'he did not want n***ers on his set anymore.'
He said: 'In the film industry we are a close knit group of people. One of the people called me and told me what Spacey had said.
'We were blown away. He was blown away.
'Two days later I got a call from Iain (Paterson). He was on the phone upset. He said Earl, "I have some bad news. Unfortunately we are going to have to part ways and not renew the contract."
'I said, "What?" He said, "Unfortunately the contract is being terminated. We need to go in a different direction."
'In my contract there is a clause for remediation, so we are supposed to sit down and talk about it but he said, "Unfortunately Earl it is the powers that be."
'They cut us a check for the next two weeks even though we didn't work.
'I have been in the industry for almost 20 years. I worked on Oscar-nominated movies. My most recent projects include Marvel and Oprah Winfrey.
'But my projects have been few and far between since then. I have got commercials but no real substantial work.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5258853/Security-House-Cards-accuses-Kevin-Spacey-racism.html#ixzz54MG8Gybi
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting. Your comments are needed for helping to improve the discussion.