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KING: Great pleasure to have as our next guest and he'll be with us the rest of the way here tonight in Los Angeles, one of
my favorite people, Kevin Spacey! He is featured and co-starring in the new movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil from Warner Brothers, directed by the legend himself Clint Eastwood.
Kevin Spacey has won a supporting actor Academy Award. He'll be starring in other films, including The Negotiator and Hurlyburly. He's coming back to stage in The Iceman Cometh. Boy, you're on a rise. The '90s are you, right Kevin?
SPACEY: It's been a great ride, I have to say.
KING: What did it for you, do you think? I mean, people in the business always knew you. Why do we now know you?
SPACEY: I think it was sort of an accumulation of a number of films, I think, that, I did in 1995 that all came out in about six months.And I think that a lot of people had known me from, certainly, work I had done in theater, and certainly I had fans from a
television series I did a while back called Wiseguy. But I think that series of films, really, finally allowed people to sort of start
connecting the dots and sort of get a name with a face. And since then, I've had a pretty good time in finding roles that keep
giving me great opportunities.
KING: And diversified roles. I mean, -- is that deliberate?
SPACEY: Yeah, oh yeah. I believe in being able to challenge myself and challenge my talent and find out where I can go that I
haven't gone before. I think one of the dangers about succeeding in anything that do you in life is that sometimes it's
easy to fall back on what comes easy. So, I'm always trying to present myself with, what can I do that I haven't done
before? What does this part offer me that no other has in the past?
KING: That's one of the toughest parts, too, is selection, isn't it?
SPACEY: Yeah.
KING: How do you know what to take?
SPACEY: Well, I try and I'm not always successful in doing it this way, but I try not to read the part, if that makes any sense.
I try to read a script and just read the story. In fact, I sometimes prefer not to know what part they want me to look at,
because it sort of takes me back to when I was in high school and I first started doing theater.
I would read plays and I'd think: this is a great play, I'd love to play that part. So, the longer I can hang on that philosophy, I can read a story and say this is a great story, or this story's terrible, I shouldn't do this story. So that you don't get sucked into it by who is directing, who is co-starring, all of those elements that can be very attractive.
KING: How do you enjoy the fame? And there are ups and downs to it. We'll cover the down a little later.
SPACEY: Sure.
KING: I, then I want to talk a lot about this new movie? Are you enjoying notoriety?
SPACEY: Well, it's -- it's different. I mean, it's something that, I've been working professionally and making my living as an actor
for a long time.
KING: So for a long time you'd be the kind of guy that someone would go [snapping finger and pointing] I know that guy.
SPACEY: I went to high school with you, didn't I.
KING: I went to high school with you. What do you do? What movie were you?
SPACEY: That's right. That's right.
KING: Now they know?
SPACEY: Yeah, now they know. And, you know, I have to say that the upside of it is that I have the most extraordinary fans that you could ever ask for. I get letters every month -- thousands and thousands of letters every month, and I try to write everyone back who writes me. And that's incredibly satisfying to read letters from kids who are, you know, 15 and 16 and older. That means a great deal to me.
KING: And you pleased Mr. Pacino, your good friend, by going back on stage to do "Iceman Cometh" in London.
SPACEY: Yeah, yeah. Well, he's talking about doing it, too, in New York. I think it's a play he'd like to tackle. So I said, look, while you're deciding to do it, I'm going to go do it in London.
KING: Did you like working with him in Looking for Richard?
SPACEY: We -- First of all, I have admired him for so long. My first real movie role was opposite him in Glengarry Glen Ross. So, we established a friendship on that film. Ithink he's one of the great examples. As a young actor, sort of starting out, you look at a guy like him and like actors before him, like Henry Fonda, and Jimmy Stewart and many others who continually came back to the theater. He's a great example, he's working all the time in the theater.
KING: Other plusses are the money, right?
SPACEY: Sure.
KING: OK, don't knock that. Now we get a minus, tell me what happened with that "Esquire" article. I don't subscribe, but I pick it up one day at a train station in Washington, at Union Station, and were they saying you were gay? That you admitted you were gay, that you told this writer - what was the essence to you of that story?
SPACEY: Well, my first response when I saw that it was high time to cancel my subscription. And, you know, I can't really tell you what motivated them. I can only say that this was intended to be an interview about my work as an actor and it somehow turned into a fictional essay about what they thought my sexuality was.
KING: For what purpose?
SPACEY: I don't really know. I fail to see the compelling public interest, you know? No one who has ever written me a letter has asked a question of that nature, and I have always maintained a separation.
KING: That it's none of our business?
SPACEY: Well, between my private life and my professional life, essentially, because the less that you as an audience know about me, the better I can do my job. If you know -- if I'm in the middle of a custody battle, let's say, and it's a nasty thing and you're reading all about it, you go to the movies and you think about that. It's very difficult to separate, you know? And I think that maybe because I haven't been someone who has offered a great deal about my personal life, then you sort of become open to speculation.
KING: It's also, if you say deny it, deny it vehemently, you're offending the gay community.
SPACEY: Well, that's what I didn't do. This particular writer asked me a number of questions
that seemed fair questions, because I was playing a gay character in a film.
KING: This film?
SPACEY: Yeah. And I answered those questions; I answered them honestly. But, I didn't say yes, I am, or no, I'm not, because I think that sexuality in this country and, for certain journalists, is used as a weapon. It's used as a measuring stick by which we judge people. And I simply said look, I'm not going to tell what I am and what I'm not, because I live in a world and in a business in which I'm surrounded by gay and lesbian people, and they're my friends, and I have no interest in sort of saying, I'm not one of them. If you want to think that, that's fine. I at no time was upset that they had implied that. I was only upset that they had implied that I had come out of a closet, which I simply didn't do.
KING: So you had to be shocked by the cover? Because that's what the cover said.
SPACEY: Yeah, I mean, you know, there's a kind of agreement I think that happens between a movie studio and a publishing company. In this case it was Hearst Corporation. You come together to -- I guess you make money. You want to sell tickets to your film and they want to sell magazines. And I think they certainly broke that by kind of ambushing me.
KING: Has this now made you wary?
SPACEY: Well, I was always wary, you know.
KING: Let me get a break and we'll come back. Lots more to go with Kevin Spacey. He stars in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. A terrific flick now showing. Don't go away.
KING: We're back with Kevin Spacey. He stars in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, one of the best selling novels ever, still on the best sellers.Number one I think -- this week.
SPACEY: Yeah, yeah.
KING: How did this come to you, this project?
SPACEY: I started to hear some rumblings about the project a couple of years ago that Clint Eastwood was going to direct it and that he was interested in me for this role, so I immediately read the book.
KING: Like it?
SPACEY: I did like it. And then I -- and then we met. We met actually -- the first time Clint and I met was at the AFI Awards. He was getting a Life Time Achievement, and I met him there. And he kind of eyed him, and I kind of eyed him, and he said, [As Clint] "well, let's have dinner some time."
KING: You do good voices.
SPACEY: Oh, sure. So we had dinner and we talked about it; talked about the nature of the role. And I have to say, I was so honored that he asked me to do it, because there were a lot of actors who wanted to play this role and it was a great opportunity.
KING: What was fascinating about this character, he -- this is a true story, so he was a person -- he died?
SPACEY: Yeah.
KING: What was fascinating from an acting standpoint?
SPACEY: Well, he was -- he was complex. He was well-liked by a large portion of the community in Savannah, and he was equally disliked by a large portion of the community in Savannah. And in terms of the trial itself or the -- shooting...
KING: Murder.
SPACEY: . . . there are people who come down on many different sides. And what I think attracted me to the book, and I think
what's attracted to many people is the ambiguity of it. I mean, there's a line I actually say in the film that's my favorite line in the film, which is - JohnCusack and I are looking at a painting and there's a over paint - there's paint underneath it and he says, Have you ever had it x-rayed? And I said, 'oh, no.'And he says, 'well, how will you know what's underneath?' And I say, 'I rather enjoy not knowing.'
And I think that - that ambiguity is partly what makes the story so fascinating. There's only two people who will ever really know what happened the night of that shooting. And so it's used as a way in which to introduced all of these rather fascinating charac- ters in this world of Savannah that is an extraordinary place, and that we were quite fortunate to be able to film in that city.
KING: Were you happy -- are they, do you know, happy with the result?
SPACEY: Well, I mean, we went down there last Thursday. We had a premiere down there on Thursday night as a benefit for two charities; one a theater down there that's going to be refurbished, and a boy's and girl's club. And I can tell you it was one of
the most thrilling premieres I have ever been to. They put out the red carpet and the sleigh lights, and there were thousands of
people who turned out.
KING: Great city, right?
SPACEY: Oh, yeah, yeah. It was a big night.
KING: Working with Eastwood -- what's it like?
SPACEY: He is a -- he is very quiet. I mean, it's a very quiet set.
KING: Oh, really?
SPACEY: Yeah, there's nobody yelling. You know how on movie sets everybody is yelling. Everybody wears little ear pieces and they say rolling. It's all very quiet, and Clint will very often shoot rehearsals. He'll come in and say . . .
KING: Explain?
SPACEY: He'll say [As Clint] "well, I thought we'd just do a little shot here, and you and John come on in and pick up the painting. I'll be in the back there. We'll see how it goes." And so you come and you think, well, we're just rehearsing. I'll just give this a shot, and do a little scene. And Clint comes up and says well, how did it go? And you go well, it went OK. How did it go for you? And fine, sure, yeah. I thought it was just fine, I think I'll bring the camera in closer. And then you realize you were shooting, that that was your master take. So he, in a very quiet way, forces you to become responsible for your performance. You have to be on the ball. And that's true for every member of the crew. He commands an enormous amount of respect.
KING: Also lean and mean, right? I mean, if the budget is that, he comes in at budget?
SPACEY: It's not unusual to start a day at 10:00 and by 4:00 you're finished.
KING: Why so much controversy over this movie? Why do some people - the raves are tremendous and the anger is tremendous?
SPACEY: Well, I think any time . . .
KING: Sort of like the way they feel about your character.
SPACEY: Well, I think that anytime there's a book that's been this popular, and also, even for people who didn't read the book, this was getting a great deal of hype. And the expectations are very high. So I think that that's part of it. You know, you're never going to satisfy everyone when a book is that popular, and so people have their own ideas about what should and should not be.
KING: I had not read the book and I thought it was a terrific movie and also beautifully filmed.
SPACEY: Jack Green, a great cinematographer.
KING: Wow.
SPACEY: He's worked with Clint for a long time.
KING: The colors and the hues, and you feel like you're in Savannah.
SPACEY: Well, you know, when we were down there, I've got to say, it was just so extraordinary to be in that city and we were also fortunate to film in the house that Jim Williams lived in; Mercer house, which is a beautiful home.
KING: Now, there's an album out with the actors singing a Johnny Mercer song. You sing on the cast album?
SPACEY: Yes, I do.
KING: What song do you sing?
SPACEY: I sing That Old Black Magic and I do my little tribute to Bobby Darin.
KING: And do you sing it with a full orchestra?
SPACEY: I absolutely do. Clint called and said . . .
KING: Whose idea was this, his?
SPACEY: This was Clint. He'd seen the Saturday Night Live I did, which I sang in the monologue in, so he called and asked if I would come and do it and we had a blast. I can't believe I am an album with Tony Bennett and K.D. Lang. I mean, that's the thing that's just . . .
KING: It's all Mercer songs, right?
SPACEY: Yeah, yeah.
KING: There is the Mercer house in Georgia?
SPACEY: Mercer house was built in 1860 by General Hugh Mercer, who was the great grandfather of Johnny Mercer. But
neither of them ever lived in the house and Jim Williams bought it from the shriners in 1968 and completely
renovated it. And his sister Dorothy, who I have to say, was extremely kind and generous to me in the research
that I did and all throughout. The family was of great help to me.
KING: How did you like the mustache?
SPACEY: Well, it's a taste saver. Well, you get a lot of food caught in it and you know...
KING: How long did it take to grow?
SPACEY: It took about, I guess about six weeks for me to grow it.
KING: Glad to get it off?
SPACEY: Yeah, I mean, you know, you do this a lot [stroking his chin]. You think that you're much more intelligent -- you do a lot of thinking.
KING: We're back with Kevin Spacey who stars in Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil. Before we talk about The Usual Suspects and take some calls, you're making the film version of HurlyBurly, Sean Penn is in it, Robin Wright, Holly Hunter.
SPACEY: No, Holly was going to do it. Meg Ryan is going do that role, and Chazz Palminteri, Garry Shandling, Anna Pacquin and I am playing the role that I understudied on Broadway 11 years ago.
KING: Which was which character?
SPACEY: Mickey.
KING: Who played it on Broadway?
SPACEY: Christopher Walkin started it and Ron Silver took it over.
KING: And are you shooting it now?
SPACEY: We are shooting very soon.
KING: What took so long to make that movie?
SPACEY: I don't know. We have all been behind it for a while but you know some of the best movies take a long time to get done.
KING: Chicago as we go to calls for Kevin Spacey hello.
CALLER: Hi. My name is Sylvia. I love Kevin Spacey, he's the most handsomest of the actors and -- hello --
KING: Do you have a question?
CALLER: He is the most handsomest actor I have seen. I am so nervous but I am all over Keyser Soze. And I want to ask him about Swimming With the Sharks. Was that a hard role to play because it's my favorite movie and I love him!
KING: Was it hard?
SPACEY: This was a film written by George Huang about the movie business in which I played a very vicious Hollywood movie producer.It wasn't hard to play. You know, it was fun to be able to . . .
KING: I knew a lot of guys like that.
SPACEY: Oh, yeah, I met a few of them but it was fun to be able to sort of play a character that is so removed from who I am. It was just a blast. We shot that movie in about 18 days.
KING: These off roles , L.A. Confidential, extraordinary film noir. Getting two Australian guys to play two L.A. cops. You're this cop who is bad then good, then changes, very successful. Still running. Did you think it would do as well as it did?
SPACEY: I certainly hoped it would. First of all, it's a great story. It's a great book. To read the book you'd think it's unfilmable, because there's about 16 different plots that they completely ignored. They just decided we couldn't do it and Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland who did the script just did an extraordinary job streamlining it and here was an opportunity to play a character who goes through such fundamental changes yet there's no dialogue about it. It's just what an audience witnesses: that character
growing a conscience.
KING: Those two guys that play the cops, were they fun to work with?
SPACEY: Yeah, yeah, then I just worked with another Aussie, Jack Thompson who plays my lawyer in Midnight.
KING: He's great, that lawyer, that's a great part.
SPACEY: Great part.
KING: The Usual Suspects, that was a brain twirler. I mean, you knew that we were going to be shocked by that ending.
SPACEY: Yeah I mean when I first read it, I was shocked by it. I had to read it a second time to make sure I actually got it right. That to me, is an example of a director and a screenwriter, Brian Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, who really, really believe that audiences are smart and that you don't really have to spoon-feed them and that if you allow them to get involved in the movie experience they have a great time. They love -- you know I love getting lost in a movie when I don't know what's going on.
KING: Yeah. And when it's resolved at the end you go back over it piece by piece and say -- how the heck did he do that?
SPACEY: Yeah.
KING: A lot of fun making movies like that.
SPACEY: It was just a blast.
KING: What was it like to get that award? First of all did you expect it when they opened that envelope, truth?
SPACEY: No.
KING: Who did you think would win?
SPACEY: I actually thought that Ed Harris would win. I mean not only do I admire him and I have had the opportunity to work with him but he is one of those actors who have been around for so long, has consistently done great work and did great work in Apollo 13, so it was quite unexpected. And it sort of goes by a little bit like a blur you know, you only really can see it when you look at the tape later. I remember getting back to my seat after and I turned to my mother who was still crying, and I said "what did I say?" you just have no idea what you say. It's just a . . .
KING: You're also going to shoot The Negotiator, right?
SPACEY: I just wrapped The Negotiator yesterday.
KING: That's what, a thriller?
Spacey: It's actually, it's an action picture that I did with Samuel L. Jackson. We worked a little bit together on A Time To Kill but not enough to our satisfaction so we found this movie together. It was a blast to do directed by a young director named F. Gary gray.
KING: Are you always working?
SPACEY: I know it seems that way, doesn't it?
KING: You're like the old days of MGM, three a year, four a year. Here it comes.
SPACEY: You know what, you're lucky if you get that much. I am extremely fortunate to be doing what I want to be doing and the way I want to do it. I am very fortunate. But for me, going off to London to do this play is like a vacation for me.
KING: You want do theater?
SPACEY: Yeah, oh, yeah.
KING: So you pick a very difficult play?
SPACEY: Naturally.
KING: Which you don't go off-stage?
SPACEY: It's about a three hour or more play.
KING: Eugene O'Neil, so it's heavy but terrific. It's a great play.
SPACEY: Yeah.
KING: You're the star.
SPACEY: It's -- yeah but it's a big cast.
KING: It's an ensemble?
SPACEY: Yeah.
KING: You like theater because it starts at 8:00 and ends at 11:00?
SPACEY: Well, certainly the hours are great, but it's also where I come from. I have spent most of my experience in the theater. I have only been doing movies really since 1991.
KING: Glengarry was your first?
SPACEY: Glengarry was my first role. I'd had other roles before that but they were kind of peripheral roles although they were great experiences so for me it has always been the theater. It has been about 4 years since I have done a play. That's long enough. I need to follow my heart and get back on stage.
KING: Los Angeles for Kevin Spacey who stars in Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil. Hello.
CALLER: Hi. Kevin.
SPACEY: Hi.
CALLER: How are you doing, this is Teshia.
SPACEY: Hi Teshia.
CALLER: Look at this, I enjoyed Albino Alligator very, very much and I was wondering if you're looking at directing anything else soon, if you had any other scripts in front of you, that you might be looking at?
KING: Yes, you directed that?
SPACEY: Yes, I did. Thank you for the compliment and I had a really great experience directing first of all I had a great cast Matt Dillon, Gary Sinise, Faye Dunaway, Bill Fichtner. It was a small film that took place primarily in one location so it was an opportunity for me to learn about working with actors under that circumstance and also learn about the camera and I do have plans. I'll produce a film or two then I'll direct one probably in about a year.
KING: Working in Glengarry Glen Ross your first major film. With those talents, Pacino, Arkin, Baldwin I mean we go on -- there was not one really non-terrific actor in the movie.
SPACEY: The only analogy I can make is sort of like you show up and they say you're playing tennis with Lendl at 5:00 then Becker at 6:00 then Sampras at 7:00. I felt like I was standing in the middle of the room with my junior racket trying not to get hit by a ball.
KING: When talent is -- does that improve every actor?
SPACEY: Absolutely. The better the actor, the better your game. It's just true in every circumstance I think in life.
KING: True in tennis, right, you get better playing better people.
SPACEY: You get frustrated if it doesn't work out right.
KING: You'll rise to it?
SPACEY: Yeah, absolutely. That's why it's a great thrill if you admire an actor. Like for example I admire Ed Norton I think is a fantastic actor. I would love to work with him, think it would be interesting. I am about to work with Sean Penn, who I admire almost more than anyone in this industry. The opportunity to get together and see what you can do together is really exciting.
KING: How did you get along with Cusack?
SPACEY: We had a good time down in Savannah.
KING: On his way to being a great actor?
SPACEY: I think so, his work in Grosse Pointe Blank -- he's been around a long time, John, he started when he was young.
KING: I know, we look at him like a kid. Back with our remaining moments for Kevin Spacey who could get another nomination for Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil. Where did you get into this schtick of imitating people?
SPACEY: I was the kid in the back of the class, you know, I was doing all the funny voices and getting people in trouble in math class, so I think it just carried on and then I did stand-up comedy for a little while while I was growing up here in Los Angeles, I went out and did some of the clubs. I just have one of those ears.
KING: You have Eastwood down perfect; you do Christopher Walken?
SPACEY: I did Walken on Saturday Night Live and I ran into him recently. I hadn't seen him and he said to me "yeah,
I saw the little thing you did on Saturday night. It was funny, you know, ha-ha!"
KING: [laughs] You also do Al?
SPACEY: Yeah. [As Al Pacino] "Oh, where is he? Are you going to pay for dinner this time, Larry?"
KING: [laughs] That's all an ear, huh?
SPACEY: Yeah, it's a funny thing I have always been able to do. I love -- the more people I work with, the more my repertoire is building.
KING: Why don't you do more comedies?
SPACEY: I would love to. First of all I want to say I had one of the best times I have ever had doing Saturday Night Live last year. Lorne Michaels is a great man, I had an extremely funny experience. I would love to do comedy. The hardest thing for me is comedy is that for me -- I am looking at the Preston Sturgess kind of comedy.
KING: In and Out would have been fun?
SPACEY: In and Out would have been fun.
KING: They're few and far between.
SPACEY: Few and far between, hard to find.
KING: How many good scripts have you seen, you have seen a lot lately, that's odd, isn't it?
SPACEY: It is odd.
KING: Paul Newman told me once if you see two or three good scripts in five years you're par for the game, true?
SPACEY: Sometimes jobs-- every now and then you read a script and say this is it. I have got to do this! If I don't do this I am going to die. And there are other jobs that are more transitional. They're bridges to something else. Sometimes you can't give a good performance in a
movie unless you have done those other three movies before because of what you learn.
KING: Ever turn down anything you felt sorry for?
SPACEY: No, no because even if something became successful, the reason I turned it down was because as much as I may have liked the story and liked the part I didn't think I was the right actor. I didn't think -- I thought I would have somehow imbalanced by being in it. So I never have, not yet.
KING: Do you take the input of others on roles?
SPACEY: Mmm-Hmm.
KING: You do?
SPACEY: Yeah there's a number of people I talk to all the time and even that I ask to read something. Sometimes I know right away -- sometimes they try to talk me out of it but you know if you just read something and it just moves you and you think I have to go to this place, I have to explore this thing . . .
KING: Has the Esquire incident final question, stopped you from doing print interviews?
SPACEY: No, no, it's just unfortunate that for some journalists, you know your talent isn't enough and I think for my audience my talent is enough.
KING: Won't stop you from . . .
SPACEY: No.
KING: Being you?
SPACEY: No, no, I am going to continue to lead the life that I lead and not allow others to define me.
KING: You want to know something; it's your life and I permit you to live it.
SPACEY: [As Marlon Brando] Thank you very much, Larry and like Marlon I should kiss you on
the lips for this wonderful experience that I have had with you tonight.
KING: Say . . .
SPACEY: [As Marlon] Good night. And is there anything to eat?
KING: Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Wish them a happy a happy Thanksgiving.
SPACEY: Happy Thanksgiving.
KING: Good night from yours truly Larry King, Kevin Spacey and all the gang in Los Angeles.
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