Mr. Showbiz Interview: Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey delivers yet another on-the-money performance, this time as a swank cop in LA. Confidential

By Stephen Schaefer

When Kevin Spacey won his Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for The Usual Suspects, it seemed like he‘d reached some kind of Olympian career peak. After all, Verbal Kint was just one of four memorble characters he created in the span of less than a year: he also shone in Seven, Outbreak, and Swimming With Sharks. The Oscar statuette was joined on his mantle by a slew of other well­ deserved trophies, including the Golden Globe, the Independent Spirit Award, and film critics awards from associations in New York, Chicago, Boston, Texas, and Seattle.

If you’re among the skeptics who thought Spacey was facing an inevitable decline after reaching his rarefied 1995 pinnacle, it‘s time to reconsider--the thirty-eight-year-old actor is gearing up for another banner year. He‘s now starring in Curtis Hanson‘s L.A. Confidential, a fifties noir redux that‘s been a sensation since its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Spacey has won unanimous acclaim for his performance as “celebrity cop“ Jack Vincennes, a jaded, morally conflicted officer who moonlights as a technical adviser for a hit TV show that solemnly sanctifies the ‘true“ workings of the LAPD. As the adaptation of novelist James Ellroy‘s bloody saga progresses, Vincennes shares center stage as part of a corrupt cop trio that, much like the Three Musketeers, goes to war for what‘s right.

L.A. Confidential alone would have been enough to make 1997 notable, but Spacey isn‘t through yet. Come Christmas, he‘ll be seen in Clint Eastwood‘s highly anticipated Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil‘ playing Jim Williams, an egocentric Savannah antiques dealer. who‘s on trial for murdering a hot young hustler. All signs--including Eastwood‘s track record and the amazing sales of John Berendt‘s non­fiction bestseller, which inspired the film--point to yet another hit for the versatile actor.

Spacey met Mr. Showbiz in Cannes this spring, after flying in from the Savannah set of Midnight. Despite the long journey, the New Jersey native was relaxed and attentive, and he exuded a confident charm. He‘s clearly feeling good about the piche he‘s carved for himself after a dozen years in Hollywood, and really, who can blame him?

Mr. Showbiz: Your celebrity cop, Jack Vincennes, is quite a guy in L.A. Confidential. Did you do research, look at old magazines, to get in character?

Kevin Spacey: I just watched a bunch of Dean Martin movies, and then came to work. (Laughs)

James Ellroy‘ s novel is epic, sprawling, long, and complex. How much stuff was cut in the transition to the screen?

Just a little bit that had to be trimmed. But nothing when I saw the movie that did any degree of damage to it at all. I felt they were really judicious in the script. It‘s one of those stories that‘s so complex and so plot-laden and has so many characters that you could get really bogged down. What Brian (Hegeland, who co-adapted with Curtis Hanson) did, the economy of how to tell that story, is really remarkable.

You could have had a six-hour mini-series.

That‘s right.

What was it like going back to the fifties?

I love this period, and I‘ve always wanted to play a cop. It‘s my first cop, and I‘m so glad he wasn‘t corrupt.

That‘s funny.

Add to that, the development of the character fascinated me, how he starts out kind of shady. An audience who knows my work might feel, “Oh, we‘re going to go off in this direction.“ And in fact, the surprise is he grows a conscience and tries to do the right thing. Add to that the clothes and the Studebaker, and I‘m pretty much a happy guy.

How much did your clothes add to your performance? Do you have any monogrammed clothes of your own?

Yes, everything I‘m wearing today is monogrammed--but it‘s monogrammed Nicholas the Second. It‘s a long story. (Laughs) We had a lot of fun deciding what to wear in this. I remember Curtis coming to a lot of costume fittings and together falling in love with several costumes. I think we‘re still be fighting who gets them once Warner Bros. releases them. We had a great time discovering a look for Jack.

But how did the clothes affect the playing of your character?

Sometimes you can discover some things in a choice of clothing or hair. It helps you let your self go. A lot of those clothes I‘d wear myself, but they were particular to this character and made me feel very much like Dean Martin.

Did you get to keep your Studebaker?

No. no. They were very strict about the Studebaker.

You‘re wearing a moustache today, for the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil shoot, I assume. Is that to be historically accurate?

Yes, this is the way Jim looked. He was older than I. He was fifty-two when the “incident“ happened. So there‘s a little bit of transformation which you‘ll see when the film opens, beyond the moustache.

How did Midnight happen for you? Did Clint Eastwood just call you up?

I heard about a year and a half ago that he was going to do this and was interested [in me]. I‘d met him at some event but we finally met to talk about it last December and we had several conversations. Then in January we both said, “Yeah, let‘s make this happen.“ Then [John] Cusack came onboard, Jude Law, and Alison Eastwood. And Jack Thompson [the Star of Breaker Morant],who‘s great.

And the drag queen, Lady Chablis!

Yes, the Lady Chablis, who‘s quite a girl.

Do you have scenes with Lady Chablis?

No, Jim Williams didn‘t know Lady Chablis. He just wasn‘t into that kind of thing.

Will Jackie Onassis show up at Jim‘s house in the movie?

That was in the book, but it‘s not in the movie. There was a story about Jackie coming to Mercer House and he gave her a tour. It was just after they met at an auction and he bought a Faberge box that she wanted. So he showed it to her. It‘s an extraordinary house. We‘re filming in it. I‘ve spent an enormous amount of time there because Jim‘s sister in particular, Dorothy, and his Aunt Catherine, really the whole family, has given me such extraordinary access. I‘ve spent a lot of time in that house.

The Usual Suspects was such an important film for you. Do you plan to work with [director] Bryan Singer again?

Oh, I hope so. He‘s just finished Apt Pupil, in which there was a role that he wanted me to do and I couldn‘t do it. 1 hope we work together again. He‘s just the most extraordinary young lad.

And you‘ve just directed a film yourself. After Albino Alligator, what‘s your opinion of being on the other side of the camera for a change?

I had a wonderful experience. I’m going to do it again, probably in a year. It didn‘t do that well in the United States but it‘s going to open in Europe and South America and Australia. It did as well as it got with its release. I was very proud of the experience. I learned a lot. That was a very small, contained film and now I want to test my wings in a different way and have more than two locations. [Laughs]

We, the public that is, tend to think of you as being a bright, intelligent person, and you‘re that way in your roles as well. Would you ever play somebody stupid?

Yeah.[Grins.] I certainly play characters that do stupid things, that‘s for sure.

We keep hearing about the dumbing down of Hollywood, yet you seem to keep making movies with some bite. and some thought to them. How difficult is that?

God knows I get offered stuff wouldn‘t touch with a ten-foot pole, either because I feel I’ve mined that territory before or it‘s a lesser version of something I‘ve done. Once you‘ve had the experience that I‘ve had of doing The Usual Suspects, I can‘t dishonor that experience by going and doing some piece of shit. Excuse my French--but we‘re in France, so why not?

There‘s a lot of stuff that I don‘t do. But the stuff I‘ve found, as long as there are directors like Curtis and Clint, as long as these directors keep giving me the opportunity to keep on the journey I’m which is not to repeat myself and trying new stuff, then I’m going to keep doing it. I feel very fortunate to have found films that ...you know, it‘s important for me to feel I’m the right actor in the movie. Sometimes I’m offered films, even if I feel they ‘re important stories to tell, at the end of the day if I feel my presence will unbalance the story, it‘s better they have someone else.

In this case with L.A. Confidential... this was possible. I felt I could fit into this genre and this world. It was right. It was the first film I‘d done after a series of darker roles and I was looking to find parts that were just a little more emotionally available.

Was that emotional imbalance even more true after winning the Oscar?

I think so. I know I‘ve had the experience of going to movies and the movie is just slightly out of kilter because there‘s a presence of a performer who is, well bankable, but sometimes not right for the role. So every time out I ask myself, Am I the right one to play this role? If I can see twenty other people doing this, then I think there isn’t anything I can bring to it that I think is mine.

Don‘t bankable actors bend the role to what they can do?

Yeah, but I work the other way. You see, I believe the job of the actor is to serve the writer, not to serve yourself. I just happened to have been raised that way in theatre. So if you come from a school of thought that is to convince the audience that I am somebody else for a couple of hours--and convince myself--then my job is to figure out things like “What is this world this writer is creating? What is the genre? What‘s the period, the milieu? And how do I fit into that?“ Ultimately I think if you do that, I think you serve yourself. You do end up doing the role you‘re supposed to do. You‘re not outside in another world, you‘re in the world that that writer‘s created. But you have to be able to identify that world, and understand it and respect it.

Then hopefully have collaborators that will help you get there -- and that‘s costumers, directors, and cinematographers. That‘s how that world is suddenly created. It‘s not that you do it. That‘s why I was pleased about what happened with this movie, because very often films that are period pieces or could be slotted in a noir period, they get so wrapped up in the affectations of the period...

The art direction?

Yeah, the costumes and the cars and die hats and the this and the that, that the characters get lost. Curtis‘s attention to detail of character allowed the period to be in the background, which is really smart.

You talked earlier about not wanting to play a role that twenty other actors could play. What is it that you bring to a role that nobody else does?

I don‘t know that I could identify it, except it‘s just a feeling. I read something and it moves me so much that I just have to be part of it and feel I‘m part of it.