Bernardo Bertolucci has said that Ridley Scott “should be ashamed” over the decision to cut Kevin Spacey from his drama All the Money in the World.

Scott made the last-minute decision to remove Spacey from the completed film last autumn after the actor and former Old Vic artistic director was accused of sexual harassment and assault by a number of men. Spacey’s scenes were reshot at great expense, with Christopher Plummer replacing him in the role of billionaire J Paul Getty.

Yet, speaking at the world premiere of the restored version of his 1972 drama Last Tango in Paris at the Bari international film festival, Bertolucci was critical of the decision, according to the Italian newspaper il Giornale (via Deadline).

“When I learned that Ridley Scott had agreed to eliminate the scenes of All the Money in the World in which Kevin Spacey was playing, I sent a message to editor Peter Scalia to tell Scott that he should be ashamed,” the Italian director said. “And then I immediately wanted to make a film with Spacey.”

Berolucci’s comments were greeted with “much applause” from the audience, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The director later went on to add that he supported the #MeToo movement, and praised it for “bringing awareness to violence against women around the world”.

Spacey is currently under investigation by prosecutors in Los Angeles and London over the allegations against him, which were instigated in October by actor Anthony Rapp, who claims that Spacey made sexual advances against him when he was 14. Spacey apologised to Rapp for any “inappropriate drunken behaviour” but said that he did not remember the encounter.

Further allegations against the actor followed, with the Old Vic revealing that 20 people had alleged inappropriate behaviour by Spacey while he was the theatre’s artistic director. Aside from his response to Rapp, Spacey has declined to comment on the other allegations made against him.

Bertolucci was himself the subject of widespread criticism in 2016 after revealing that the infamous rape scene in Last Tango in Paris was shot without the consent of actor Maria Schneider. Bertolucci claimed that he did not inform Schneider of the scene, in which Marlon Brando’s character uses a stick of butter as lubricant to rape her character, as he “wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress”.

The director later claimed that the controversy had been based on a “ridiculous misunderstanding”.