Ridley Scott Is Pretty Frank About Why He Replaced Kevin Spacey With Christopher Plummer

Ridley Scott shocked us all when it was announced that, amid several allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, he would completely scrub Kevin Spacey from his upcoming film All the Money in the World and replace him with Christopher Plummer in the role of J. Paul Getty. Not only would he do that, but he would do it in time to meet the film’s release date — just six weeks after the announcement. With the film’s new, Spacey-free trailer, Scott is clearly on track to do just that.

Scott himself hasn’t spoken about all this until now, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, telling them that he had no choice but to remove Spacey to salvage the rest of the film and performances.

I was finished with the film and was in [U.K. recording studio] Abbey Road finalizing the music. Someone was like: Guess what And that’s where it began. I sat and thought about it and realized, we cannot. You can’t tolerate any kind of behavior like that. And it will affect the film. We cannot let one person’s action affect the good work of all these other people. It’s that simple.

He also said that things might have gone a bit differently if Spacey had just called him up and talked to him about what was going on, though the ultimate outcome would remain the same.

Did you have to call Kevin Spacey and tell him

No. And he didn’t call me. If he had called me and said, “Hey, look, this is the way it is and I’m really sorry,” then I’d have handled it slightly differently.

If he had called and said all that, do you think you’d still have replaced him

Yes. I’d have still done it. I would have said, “Yes, thank you for calling, but I have to move on.”

As a veteran of the industry, if anyone would have heard something about other Spaceys and Weinsteins roaming around Hollywood, it would be Scott. And he says we’re not done yet.

I think it was about time. Harvey [Weinstein] definitely was way overdue. There will still be a few more people out there gritting their teeth who are way overdue.

All the Money in the World is set for release December 22.