Presumed Alien in K-Pax, gossipy journalist in The Shipping News, Kevin Spacey talks freely to Ciak.
MY NAME IS NOBODY
By Marco Giovannini(Italian to English translation)
The Americans call him "Mr. Anybody", for his predilection to perform common characters, true, rich of contradictions, that
give him always the possibility to explore new roads. Such in his nature restless and hyperactive.
"Is it only an asshole question or there is a hidden target?"
Kevin Spacey answers this way to the brave interviewer who noted that in his last American movie "The Shipping News"
(directed by Lasse Hallström) not only plays for the firs time a journalist but he is going around questioning people on
their private life that in real life he is not allowing people to ask him. The war between Kevin and the press started
suddenly in 1997 after a famous article in Esquire (Kevin Spacey has a secret) in which the journalist hypothesized he was
gay. And it never ended. "I feel immediately smell of burning [n.d.t. this is an Italian common sense I don't know if it has
the same meaning for you] and dishonesty" said Spacey "I'm ready to discuss my work, not my life."While "The Shipping News" (with Cate Blanchett and Julianne Moore) has been released in the US, K-Pax by Iain
"Sure. This means the characters I choose are universal, genuine, full of contradictions as real people. It doesn't
Softley in which Spacey is Prot, a presumed alien coming from another planet that the psychoanalyst Jeff Bridges is trying to
decypher, is arriving in Italy.
Meanwhile he has already finished shooting "The Life of David Gale" by Alan Parker (with Kate Winslet), a drama on
death penalty.
- Which is the common denominator of your characters?
""The wish to not repeat myself, to explore different and new roads. Prot is definitely a "different", a man who says
he is an alien and this involves a fantastic job: how can you prepare yourself to such a role, what kind of research
do you do? Not having many aliens around me I went to a psychiatric hospital and asked if there was any alien: they
raised about a dozen hands. I was interested in the humanity and innocence of the character, in his logic and his
simplicity. He is curious, observes everybody but don't judges. Makes very straight questions , forces people to
think. It's the kind of challenge I like as an actor, leaves room to creativity and mystery."
- They call you "Mr. Nobody" or "Mr. Anybody": Do you like it?
matter what is the "genre" of the movie the roles that intrigue me are those in which the audiences can identify
themselves."
- Why did you decide to be an actor?
"In America we have the verb - To Pretend - that means simulate. I immensely like to simulate. To burst out my
imagination and that of those who watch me, be a storyteller, it is a need in any society. Theatre and movies
are the modern equivalent of a camp with people around a fire."
- People are asking from where this Kevin Spacey came out, until the Oscar in 1996 for The Usual Suspects you were a perfect stranger .
"For fifteen years I've been a theatre actor. Cinematographically I'm still a novice. I had the luck to be
able to grow slowly."
- You are now earning ten million dollars a movie. How important is money for you?
"The most important thing is survive. The rest has to be
used in a good way. I don't collect homes, cars or
airplanes. And I try not to forget I'm not alone in this
world. I set up a production company to be able to offer
other talents a chance. My slogan, good for any profession
is -if you are so lucky to arrive to the attic, you have to
send back the elevator to the ground floor.-
- Why did you buy at an auction for $150,000 the Oscar
statuette won by composer George Stoll in 1945 (for Anchors
Aweigh) and give it back to the Academy?
"Spielberg did it already two times, I thought it was
important to give a signal that also one of my generation is
sensitive to these symbols."
- Which was the crucial moment in your career?
"Stop playing the bad guy. We are living in a world where
people like to label you and to an actor you can't take
away the illusion he can be anybody. In 1996 after "The
Usual Suspects" and "Seven" I tried to find more faceted
characters, less white or black, refusing a lot of money, to
better direct my career. Otherwise I could have said goodbye
to a role like the one in "The Shipping News." Cinema is a
place where if they don't see you do something they won't
believe you are able to do it.
- Have you a secret project?
"The biography of the singer Bobby Darin. I like to sing,
not only when I'm in the shower. When I was young I did many
musicals. Recently I sang "Mind Games" at the John Lennon
tribute. I was at Radio City Music Hall, there was a direct
connection (live TV) and Yoko Ono was there. I felt
myself a Kamikaze (?).- Something you never speak about?
- What do you like of Spencer Tracy?
"When my father died I found some manuscripts of his. He was
a technical writer, but secretly he wrote some novels. I'd
like to publish them, but without using my name and my fame,
it has only to be because of his writing.
- How do you see your immediate future?
"It's time to go back to theatre. I'd like to try myself
with some classic like Shakespeare but also in something
modern. Making a movie is always a guess: will it make it or
not? A play instead can be changed every night.
- Your favourite tale?
"It's about Lawrence Olivier, one night at The Old Vic in
London he made a terrific interpretation. Audience calls him
back four times and also his colleagues applaud him. At the
end he went to his dressing room slamming the door and did
not speak with anybody. The day after they ask him why he
was such in a foul mood after the best performance of his
career. -That's it! - he answered. - The problem is I don't
know how I made it!-"
- Your favourite slogan?
"Speak little and work a lot."
- Why do you have it in so much with the journalists?
"They think you have to tell them everything. Instead I want
to decide what to speak about and what not. Remaining a little
bit mysterious helps people to believe in the characters you
play, not superimpose the actor on them."
- The most stupid thing they wrote about you?
"That my name Spacey is a tribute to Spencer Tracy, my
favourite actor. Instead it is the Family name of my mother.
"Passion and simplicity, integrity and honour. You see him
and you say this is a man. But I love also Jack Lemmon, who
has been my friend and my master. He always told me:
" It took me fifteen years to win two Oscars and you made
it in four, you son of a bitch."
You asked me how I choose my characters, in fact I think how
Lemmon and Tracy would have judged them.- How did you get in shape?
"Tai Chi and Yoga, plus chiropractic massages and diet. The
tragedy has been "The Shipping News", Lasse Hallström asked
me to gain 40 pounds: "You have to look like a round loaf!"
he used to tell me. Recently I discovered boxing, a great
exercise and a perfect discipline, not only physical but also
intellectual: feint and dodges like in an actor's
job."
- How is your life changed after September 11th?
"I promised myself not to do stupid and useless things no
more."
- The most intelligent slogan on war?
"Justice not revenge."
- One of your personal characteristics?
"I never look at the dailies when I'm shooting, I don't want
to grow fond of a scene or a face. I have to put full trust
in the director."
- A Wish?
"Be able to write well, actually I'm good in adapting
existing things, but not a creator."Ciak January 2002
Thanks to Gloria for the interview.
Driving Mr. Spacey!: The positively untrue life and times of Kevin Spacey,
with a few real facts thrown in for fun.
All collages and photo enhancements were done by me using Microsoft® Picture It!® 99
© 2000 - 2004 Driving Mr. Spacey!