'House of Cards' Star Michael Kelly Breaks Silence on Kevin Spacey Scandal

Michael Kelly, who plays Doug Stamper on Netflix's House of Cards, has finally opened up about Kevin Spacey's sexual misconduct scandal as the final season debuts.

The sixth and final season of House of Cards began streaming on Netflix on Friday, Nov. 2, entirely without Spacey. The actor was once the star of the show, even addressing the audience in eerie fourth wall-breaking monologues. However, after Spacey was faced with numerous accusations of sexual assault and harassment, he was fired from the show.

In a new interview with Variety, Kelly has finally opened up about his former co-star. He said that he never saw a trace of the actor's predatory side.

"No, I didn't. I was shocked... It's just a million emotions that go through your head and it's disbelief, and there's shock and there's all these things," he said. "But no, I never witnessed anything like that. I'm not saying anything about what happened or didn't happen, I'm just saying that me personally, I never encountered anything that made me feel uncomfortable."

Kelly acknowledged that a lot of the recent attention on the show came from the unfortunate news of Spacey's actions. He admitted that he, too, was looking at a lot of things differently, including all the time he spent with the iconic actor.

"When it happened, obviously, it was a million emotions," he said. "Dealing with what actually happened was very difficult."

To Kelly, Spacey had been first and foremost an entertainer, even amongst his peers. He said that making the final season without him on set was a strange experience.

"Kevin's always such a joker and entertainer, and not just someone you could talk to about acting," he said. "But he was, quite often, a big entertainer on set. Like, he would do impressions, and he would sing songs, and he would make everybody laugh a lot. And, for me, he was my acting partner. Most of my stuff over the six years, five years, was with him. And to have that removed was very foreign to me."

Even after all their years conspiring on screen together, Kelly said that he has not spoken to or heard from Spacey since the scandal broke.

"That's also strange, you know?" he said. "To have someone just removed from your life who didn't die is very weird."

Kelly spoke briefly about the period of time where the show's very future was at stake, as many could not see it going forward without Spacey. He said that he was in constant communication with co-star Robin Wright, people at Netflix as well as people at MRC, the studio.

"That was the nice thing because through the whole process, everyone was talking. I wasn't talking to Kevin, but we were all talking, those of us left," he said.

Despite all the drama, Kelly expressed a lot of excitement for House of Cards season 6, and he hoped that critics and audiences would give it a fair chance.

The final season is streaming now on Netflix.

Photo credit: Getty Images