Kevin Spacey denied committing any sexual assaults and told jurors that he was "crushed" by the allegations, as the U.S. actor gave evidence in a London court on Thursday.
The two-time Oscar-winner said he could not believe that one of the complainants, who alleges Spacey assaulted him on up to 12 occasions, would "stab me in the back".
Spacey, 63, is standing trial at Southwark Crown Court on a dozen charges of sex offences against four men between 2001 and 2013 when they were in their 20s and 30s. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
The four accusers have said Spacey aggressively groped them and in one case performed oral sex while they were passed out, with the prosecution calling him a "sexual bully".
Spacey, wearing a grey suit, white shirt and light blue tie, entered the witness box on Thursday and denied having non-consensual sex or being aggressive.
When asked by his lawyer about his career and time in London, the Hollywood star spoke about his famous acquaintances, saying he once bought British actress Judi Dench a ping-pong table and purchased "the most expensive Mini Cooper ever bought", leaving it in singer Elton John's garage.
'Made up'
Spacey was first asked about one of the complainants who alleges the actor repeatedly assaulted him over a period of about four years in the early 2000s.
His lawyer Patrick Gibbs asked Spacey about his relationship with the man, to which Spacey said: "I liked him greatly. We had a good time together. We laughed a lot."
The actor described the complainant as "funny and charming and flirtatious". Asked if he himself was flirtatious, Spacey replied: "Yeah. I'm a flirt, I'm a big flirt."
He said that as his relationship with the complainant developed over time "it became somewhat sexual".
Spacey denied that it was non-consensual, saying: "It didn't happen in a violent, aggressive, painful way. It was gentle and it was touching and it was, in my mind, romantic."
He also said: "We never had sex together because he made it clear that he didn't want to go any further and that happens at times and you just respect how far someone wants to go."
Spacey denied sexually assaulting a second man who alleges the actor subjected him to a tirade of sexualised remarks at a charity event in London and says Spacey spun him round and painfully grabbed his crotch like "a cobra".
"I never said any of the things that he claims I said to him and I wouldn't and never have to anyone in my life," Spacey said. On the alleged assault, he added: "It never happened."
Spacey also denied a third complainant's allegations, who says the actor performed oral sex on him while he was passed out in Spacey's London apartment in the late 2000s.
He said when he was told about the allegations by police he thought that "this is somebody just shaking me down and I've faced this before".
Spacey also addressed the man's allegation in evidence that the actor drugged him before the alleged attack, saying: "None of that was true."
"We had a consensual, I believe nice and lovely evening and then he - if he regretted it immediately, I don't know, I can't speak for him," Spacey said.
His lawyer Gibbs earlier told the jury that the complainants had reimagined consensual encounters "with a sinister spin" or, in some cases, simply "made up" their accounts.
