Guy Pearce said he felt “targeted” by Kevin Spacey when they worked together on the 1997 film, “L.A. Confidential,” but it took him nearly 20 years to realize the full impact.

Pearce, nominated for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category for his work in “The Brutalist,” tells The Hollywood Reporter that he previously tried to minimize Spacey’s impact on him but still gets choked up thinking about it.

In a 2018 interview, Pearce called Spacey an “amazing actor” but admitted having a “slightly difficult time” working with him because “he’s a handsy guy.”

Pearce said on The Hollywood Reporter’s Sunday episode of the “Awards Chatter” podcast that when he worked on “L.A. Confidential,” he was bothered by Spacey but minimized it by telling himself, “Ah, that’s nothing. Ah, no, that’s nothing.”

“I did that for five months, and really I was sort of scared of Kevin because he’s quite an aggressive man. He’s extremely charming and brilliant at what he does — really impressive, etc. He holds a room remarkably. But I was young and susceptible, and he targeted me, no question.”

Pearce claimed he told his then-wife that “the only days I feel safe are the days when [Simon Baker] is on set because I’m dumped like a hot potato, and [Kevin] focuses on [Simon] because he was 10 times prettier than I am.”

He said it wasn’t until Spacey was accused of misconduct in 2017 that he allowed himself to process what had happened with the “House of Cards” actor nearly 20 years earlier.

“I was in London working on something, and I heard [the reports], and I broke down and sobbed, and I couldn’t stop,” Pearce said. “I think it really dawned on me the impact that had occurred and how I sort of brushed it off and how I had either shelved it or blocked it out or whatever. That was a really incredible wake-up call.”

Pearce didn’t specify exactly what happened with Spacey but did claim that he’s since “had a couple of confrontations with Kevin” that “got ugly.”

In 2017, Spacey, a two-time Oscar winner, faced accusations from actor Anthony Rabb of sexually harassing him in 1986 when he was 14 and Spacey was 26.

In 2022, a New York jury found Spacey not liable for molesting Rabb. He was also acquitted last year in London on nine charges of sexual assault involving four theater actors, but new allegations emerged earlier this year.

HuffPost reached out to Spacey’s manager for comment on Pearce’s claims, who responded by sending this tweet of the actor defending himself.

You can hear the entire interview below.