Kevin Spacey on InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse

considered by many to be one of his generations greatest actors he's always willing to take risks and has created some very memorable characters from the usual suspects to American beauty to playing Bobby Darin and Beyond the sea he creates these roles with depth and believability hello i'm ernie manouse coming up on interviews our conversation with tony and two-time oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey is it more challenging for you to do someone who was a living person or to create a character from scratch well you feel a responsibility I mean I've had the experience a couple of times I did a PBS telev television movie about Clarence Darrow and I played a real character in The Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil so you do feel the responsibility that you want to try to be as accurate as you can with a person's essence but almost in all of the cases that I've experienced I didn't want to feel trapped by doing an out-and-out slavish imitation I think we've seen films where it feels like the actors were so self-conscious about wanting to get every single gesture or vocal quality or a walk or it actually it ends up not having a life to it and in the case of Bobby Darin this is one of the most remarkable performers with energy and style and kind of arrogance to him and cockiness to him that it in a way it had to come from me in order for it to I think not be Hollow and at some point along the way along this journey over the last five years of trying to get the music right and in his performance aspects write them our music producer Phil Ramone is kind of legendary in his own right it worked with Bobby Darin worked with Sinatra did all of Simon & Garfunkel's albums he says at some point I stopped trying to do an imitation of Bobby because that's sort of where you began he says at some point I started using my own instincts as a performer and when I did that the register my voice lowered it got deeper and I started to just trust myself but by that point I'd watched so much a Bobby listened to so much that he was in me in a way or you know there's a version of Bobby Darin that I do because I do feel that I have to make this kind of misquote of Senator Benson I knew Bobby Darin for people who haven't seen him you know he really was one of the last great all-around entertainers that I think we've ever had and only because he died so young at the age of 37 and I think his his legacy has dissipated as it is today so quite frankly our hope in doing this movie my hope and doing this performance is that we can turn the spotlight back onto him what was it about him though they caught your attention it all started with my mother my mother was a big Bobby Darin fan I'm sure like a lot of mothers out there who were my mother's age or younger he was also a guy who I think he hid a lot of different genres of music so he hid a lot of different you know he had kids when he was in rock-and-roll and then he had adults when he did pop music and then he had a different audience when he did folk or country-western or gospel and then he hit a whole other audience when he did protest songs against the war I think his work is timeless Tony Bennett recently was asked why do you think you've endured so long and he said because I've never sung to a demographic I sing to everybody and I think Bobby Darin sang to everybody but in a very brief 15 year career and I think his style I think his he just had a way around words he had a phrasing that I think was his probably his best quality as a singer you know there are other singers that were had pure voices you know Sinatra is probably the purest of those saloon guys but Bobby had something that none of them had and part of that was his diversity and part of that was the range of his talent I mean he not only wrote his own songs and sang his guts out but he did impressions he danced he was an actor he played the drums the vibes the harmonica the guitar the piano I mean he was this dynamo in this very small package yeah because he was shorter than I am and he had I think less hair than I do not entirely sure and you know we don't have that kind of entertainer anymore we also don't really have the venue I think that must have been we try to portray this in the movie a little bit the the watching his venue disappear nightclubs for a time in the United States and the world were the premier place of entertainment you know people got dressed up they went out to these smoky rooms they watched somebody sing their guts out for two hours we got jazz clubs now and thank God we still have them but I think the music industry noticed that they could make more money in big arenas and concerts and stadiums and Bobby never wanted to play those he always liked the intimate clubs and and I hope you know who knows maybe all that stuff will come back what surprised me about the film was you're doing all your own singing yes how much of the love of music do you have well what people don't know about me is that I started out doing musicals from the time I was 13 till I was in my 20s I basically did more musicals than anything else I did Damn Yankees in West Side Story and gypsy and the boyfriend and dames at sea and Sound of Music so I I have always been a song and dance man in my heart just never had a chance professionally to display that and to me it was um I think the most important aspect of this film was the music if we didn't get the music right then it didn't really matter what else we got right and so we started working on the music back in 1999 and just consistently have been testing myself stretching my talent pushing my voice to get within Bobby's range and also get within the way he attacked a song and we were very blessed because Darren's family both Sandra Dee da Darren their son and Steve clowner who's the character that John Goodman plays in the movie who was Bobby's manager they got by in this movie to such a degree that they actually went into Bobby's archives and they located all of his original arrangements and charts and they sent them to me and that's what we laid down to the abbey road a year ago so note-for-note except for the sections we expanded for the big dance sequences that we do our big MGM homage its note-for-note what Bobby did Wow is there a fear in you putting yourself out there like that that what if the audience doesn't accept me what are you past that I mean I've already lived through in the last five years I think that bobby lived through that I didn't quite understand as much as I do now which is the dilemma between professional expectations and personal freedom you know Bobby did a lot of things in his career that were probably detrimental to his outward career but he was following his heart and I think at the end of the day you have to follow your heart you know I've experienced after American Beauty I did a whole series of films that critics savagely attacked and almost in a kind of how dare you try this and I find that you know strange only because I think that's what the job of an actor is is to test yourself and to go to new places and to try new things but but I would hear these things of oh we don't like our Kevin Spacey that way we like him this way and you know that's certainly the dilemma that a lot of artists face is that people prefer the early stuff but who you gonna live for yeah you know I got to get up in the morning and face the day and if I can't test myself if I can't stretch my talent if I can't walk into new areas if I only ever do what's convenient or comfortable or I could make a lot of money doing showing up and doing the same old turn we got enough of those people yeah and quite frankly I think after a while audiences start to lose their excitement I'd much rather test myself and if I fail I fail on my terms there was a story I read and never knowing how much is accurate or not accurate about you were on the lot of some film and walked by and saw one actor who had a bunch of Rolls Royces out the front of their trailer no that's a that's a true story actually um that was um when I was making a film called dad with Jack Lemmon it was the third time that we worked together and we would eventually do one more film together Jack never allowed how they would glory to go to his head he was one of the sweetest kindest hardest-working actors that you'd ever come across and Jack had a little trailer like a little star trailer not a big anything just a little star trailer and his door was usually open he was in there in his underwear doing the crossword puzzle and across the way was a big big star with a Winnebago and nine golf carts and 13 bodyguards and 12 chefs and you couldn't get near that trailer and you know just looking at those two things and saying well which life do I want I think I'd rather have that one and that's how I'm leading my life do you give up things to have this life I think you always make choices in life you know I mean I am I guess in many ways like Bobby performing has been my life it's all I've ever known it's all I've ever done I've been blessed that I've been given opportunities to do all kinds of different things you know I'm running a theater now in London the Old Vic which is not something I ever imagined I would end up doing so I'm reinventing myself yet again the things that you give up you know I think everybody gives up things in life you know everyone finds a way to live their life and compromise the things that you know others might have in abundance but you may have less of but at the end of the day I believe the good so far outweighs the bad that you know it's it's worth whatever those sacrifices are talk to me a little bit about the discipline of acting and why I bring that up as I think to myself you're making this movie and you're directing it and you're producing it and you've worked many years to bring it to the screen when that camera rolls and they say act how do you get away from all of that all of the thoughts the budgets the overrides up to get into the character to actually present it well you don't do it alone in this case it was easier than I ever imagined it would be when I set out because I didn't intend on directing the movie originally it just it felt to me over time it's because of this remarkable crew you know when you're surrounded by people who believe in what you're doing who believe in what they're doing and who believe in the concept of this film which they did with a confidence that you get from them I mean every day I you know I was mostly worried on this movie would I ever be able to sleep because my mind was always going yeah thinking about what we did what's coming up but because this group dedicated themselves to this film because they believed in it because I didn't want to fail them every day because we went through four and half months where we lost our financing we had to refinance the whole film we went through five weeks where the crew wasn't getting paid and I hadn't ended up paying the crew we didn't have money when we laid down all the musical tracks and I had to pay for that in order to make sure it got done I was so inspired by everyone who came on to this film and picked up my dream and made it theirs that all of that difficulty and all of those kind of worries just disappeared it's almost as if the day we started shooting all of that anxiety that I went through instead of it coming on top of me and crushing me it went underneath me and lifted me up and I had the funnest time I've ever had in my life what about that in general when you're working on any project how do you turn off life to give you room to do the character it a lot of it depends on the environment you're in and a lot of it depends on whether you trust the person at the helm now I've been lucky I've worked with some remarkable directors but I've also worked with some tossers and you know that I keep getting asked you know what was it like to direct yourself for the first time and I say well I promise it it might be the first time I've directed myself officially but the truth is you learn how to save yourself in situations where you realize that the person at the helm doesn't even know where the deck is yeah that's unfortunate but it's true that there's a lot of people who you know rise to the top and in any industry who quite frankly aren't qualified but I've been fortunate that most of my experiences have been with remarkable directors so a lot of it is the environment you know if you have a director and a producing staff who understand if you create a great environment if you allow people to do their best work if you are able to describe to them what you're looking for then you feel trust and then you feel free and then you can let go of all the things ideas and be in the moment which is what acting is all about it's about listening more than anything else and if there's a lot of noise in your head then it's hard to listen but I've had most of my experiences in film and theatre have been relatively easy in terms of getting to that place you need to be when that camera rolls and you want that magic or as Jack Lemmon used to say magic time are you one of those people who can be living your life and then the moment the camera rolls you jump into character and then you back out or is it more of a process for you sometimes it depends on the role and sometimes it depends on what you're shooting and when you're shooting it sometimes you have to stay in a certain emotional place perhaps for a couple of days while you do a sequence but I'm one of those who I like to hang up the character at the end of the day along with the costume I don't take it home with me I don't live with it I mean this one I've lived with because it involves so much of me and because so much of it was about performance but most of the time I like to sort of hang up the hat at the end of the day I'm curious what it's like the first time you step on the Broadway stage terrifying really oh yeah I mean I remember my first opening night my first Broadway play was ghosts with leave omen and I was 20 years old playing Oswald was a big part john madden was the original director of that production who went on later to do Shakespeare in Love but he got fired halfway through and not because he wasn't good and that was a that was a tough one because I I believe so much in John and was so sad to see him get fired and that was a tough one I was very nerve-wracking you know I mean there you were on Broadway for the first time and I later on played you know more plays on Broadway and and had a much better time in the sense of I was more confident with my own work and I was working with with a wonderful company and you know I got to do Neil Simon's lost in Yonkers and and then long day's journey with with Jack and eventually came to Broadway with Iceman Cometh them so I've had a wonderful time in New York and the theatre has always been my primary allegiance so for me to be now running the Old Vic is just a huge thrill I can't wait to get back up on stage and we're gonna do a play called national anthems first the third play of our first season and then we're gonna do the Philadelphia Story after that tell me a little bit how you got involved with the Old Vic well it started with the Iceman Cometh when we transferred from the Almeida to the Old Vic I had probably the greatest experience I've had working in a theatre it is it is a remarkably great theater for actors it's because of the shape of the theatre itself it's a it's a horseshoe shape so there's no balcony that juts out and so vocally it is an incredibly easy theatre I mean still takes an effort but I never lost my voice at the Old Vic and I've lost my voice of practically every other theatre I've worked at also the history there I mean it's been standing there since 1818 it's where John Gielgud made his debut Peter O'Toole Richard Burton Laurence Olivier ran it for 13 seasons when the National Theatre was there Judi Dench made her debut there so its history is in the building you feel it the spirits of these great artists is there and I was on the committee to help them try to find someone to run the theater and then one day I thought what are you doing you know it's staring you in the face if this is something you've wanted to do your entire life and so is close to Dick Cheney as I'll ever get I ended up putting myself on the list of candidates and and now I'm running it what do you bring to it do you think well I think there's something interesting about being an American running a British theater I hope that the ability that I might have as a magnet for actors and directors and writers to come and work at this theater will be substantial and I hope that in the long run I have something to do with revitalizing the theater for its future you know I don't want the theater just to be successful while I'm there I'm trying to everything I do is thinking about a successor everything I do is about what happens in five years ten years when I'm done there to make sure that the theater isn't only successful while I'm there but it continues to be a vital producing house in theater in general what's going on in Broadway and all the Disney ization of Broadway and all of the big musical things does that hurt theater today do you think or does it help well I think anytime there's a big success it's it's good for the theater because people go and have a good time in the theater I mean people love musicals a lot of people love musicals then I think that helps other things because that means that people might have a good time at the theater and they want to go see something else anytime there's a hit play I think it helps the rest of the community look all you have to do is look off Broadway and realize that some of the best work is done off-broadway and and sometimes it's fortunate that they raise the money to move it to Broadway sometimes they're very smart and leave it right where it is and you look at some of the regional theaters around this country where some remarkable new writing is discovered and playwrights come out of there and eventually go to New York I think you know it's very funny to me how the theater is always referred to as dying you know that's the it's the theaters dying and movies are never dying books are never dying televisions never dying it's just the theater that's dying and yet somehow it manages to survive all of these death Nell's it's expensive it's difficult it's harder now to compete for an audience that goes to the movies and watches television and stuff but I think as long as there are writers who are writing courageous work and interesting work and entertaining work and as long as there are producers who are willing to take a risk theater is going to be alive and well can your name become too big to allow you to do the work you want to do not if I have anything to do with it I think you have to try as best you can to control and within limits because there's a whole lot of stuff out there that you have nothing to do with I mean you know you can disappear for two years and suddenly you know you're still somehow out there you know I try very hard to control the amount of stuff that I participate in I you know I I don't like I don't like being referred to as a celebrity I don't like being referred to as a Hollywood star it's a disservice to what I do it is it is a convenient you know I hear this all the time so how different is it to live in Hollywood than to live in London and I go I don't live in Hollywood I lived in New York since I was 19 years old but it's an easy and I think lazy journalism the fact of the matter is I'm an actor I'm now an artistic director of a theatre now will they ever actually treat me that way probably not because in their minds it's easier to call me a Hollywood star but I'm an actor I'm an actor who happens to do movies I'm a slug that who's done relatively well in film surprise surprise but my attitude is not that and my attitude is I want to do the best work that I can and if all the good fortune that's happened to me in film I can turn that around and use it as a magnet for theater then that's great I'm doing something useful with it you know I I want to continue to do the best job that I can do with what I've been given and take advantage that's all the good fortune that's happened to me in the right way and not the wrong way and so I'm hoping that I can just stay on that course if you could rearrange things in your life a little would you have debuted on Broadway later in your career would you have had as big a success with American Beauty at a different point or are you comfortable with where it all happened you know you can't you know it's so speculative you know I mean the fact the matter is is this is the way it went down and you know I've had such an extraordinary journey and a big part of me feels like I'm just getting started you know people sometimes asked me what's your favorite film and I say I hope I haven't made it yet if you had would that darken the rest of your career for you as an artist yeah I think anytime you think you've done your best work you ought to open a shoe shop because you always hope your best work is ahead of you and to me it has to be or why I get out of bed in the morning yeah what keeps you going then looking for that pearl people I have enormous love and affection and faith in people and that's what keeps me going human beings keep me going I am so inspired by people I meet by remarkable work by people who keep moving forward in a world in which it's increasingly you know we live in a very cynical a very temporal time and there are still great people and there are still great people who who love to be entertained who love to be moved and I do it for them did you lose any faith in people with all that we've seen happen since 9/11 and all of that did that darken it at all for you and were you in New York with it happen I wasn't in New York but I was in New York as fast as I could get there after no actually I think that that inspired me to see how not just New Yorkers who are a unique and extraordinary breed rose to the challenge of reclaiming their city and how the people around the world their affection for America and not just Americans because we lost a lot of foreigners on that day I believe that we showed those who were against us what we're made of and I believe that we have a lot more work to do and I believe we have a lot more healing to do but I've been inspired by everything that we as a people have tried to do I don't necessarily agree with every decision our administration has made but I do think that that you can't fault the people and what I have discovered living abroad is that people do make a distinction between Americans and an administration you know I get asked this question you know you do feel a lot of anti-americanism and I say no in fact I don't at all and I don't think you see it even in Middle Eastern countries I talk to a lot of journalists who go to Middle Eastern countries who say now there there's a distinction you know if people are upset about in administration's policies they're not upset and hate Americans I think that's false I think they recognize that America is a good place and at its heart wants to do the right thing yeah I take you back to your movie for a minute and say I've heard you're touring you go out there and you'll sing with an orchestra and do the whole thing I am I'm taking a ten-city tour with a 19 piece big band Roger Calloway is leading it Greg field who was Sinatra's drummer for the last 10 years is keeping the beat feel Ramona's back producing and the great fun of it is I'm getting a chance to do a lot of Bobby's work that I couldn't fit into the movie some of my favorite stuff of Bobby's and we're going to San Francisco LA Boston Atlanta City Miami Chicago New York and it's all ending at the Wayne Newton theatre at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas oh how cool yeah you know what we're ending right here thank you very much a pleasure Kevin Spacey to order a transcript call eight six six six five two three three seven eight or sudden $6.95 to the address on your screen please include the name of the guests

Channel: HoustonPBS

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Rating: 4.9191918 out of 5

Keywords: kevin, spacey, on, innerviews, with, ernie, manouse, interview, houston, pbs, channel, american, beauty, the, usual, suspects, seven, moon, academy, award, winner, l.a., confidential, pay, it, forward, superman, returns

Id: am09YPdjxXc

Length: 25min 49sec (1549 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 22 2011