Kevin Spacey played Eugene Simonet in which movie?

Kevin Spacey played Eugene Simonet in the 2000 movie Pay It Forward. Directed by Mimi Leder, the drama follows Trevor McKinney, a schoolboy who turns a class assignment into a personal campaign: help three people, asking each recipient to help three others in turn.

Spacey plays Eugene Simonet, Trevor’s social studies teacher. Eugene is physically and emotionally scarred by an abusive past and initially keeps his life tightly controlled. Trevor’s mother, Arlene, played by Helen Hunt, becomes closely connected to Eugene as the story develops. Haley Joel Osment portrays Trevor.

The film was adapted from Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel of the same name. The screenplay changed several elements, including Eugene’s identity: in the novel, the character was originally named Reuben St. Clair and was African American. Denzel Washington was offered the film role before Kevin Spacey accepted it.

The title refers to the story’s central idea of passing kindness forward instead of repaying it directly. It is sometimes confused with “Pay It Forward” as a general phrase, but this question asks specifically for the film title.