A (Kevin) Spacey odyssey
By Mayo Martin, TODAY | Posted: 24 March 2009 1433 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Playing snarky, sneaky bad guys seems to be what Kevin Spacey does best: From Superman Returns’ baldie megalomaniac Lex Luthor to Se7en’s poker-faced psycho John Doe to The Usual Suspects’ infamous criminal mastermind Keyser Soze. (Oops, forgot to put a “spoiler alert” there. Sorry, kids.)

But there’s one “good guy” role that’s been keeping this A-list actor busy for the past few years — and he’s doing it in theatre.

For the past six years, the two-time Oscar-winning American actor has spent his time in London as artistic director for the Old Vic theatre company, where he’s been occasionally performing and directing.

More importantly, he’s been enticing the creme de la creme of the American movie and theatre scenes (Robert Altman, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Dreyfuss and, er, Neve Campbell, to name but a few) to perform with their Brit counterparts.

This year, he has taken this Transatlantic endeavour to greater heights by co-organising The Bridge Project, a series of co-productions with the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Neal Street Productions, a Britain-based film and theatre company co-founded by buddy and Revolutionary Road director Sam Mendes, with whom Spacey worked on the Oscar-winning film American Beauty.

The three-year project began early this year with the twin-bill of Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, with the latter set to hit our shores on Thursday courtesy of the Singapore Repertory Theatre.

It’s directed by Mendes and stars — as everyone knows by now — Hollywood actors/theatre vets Ethan Hawke, Rebecca Hall and Josh Hamilton alongside stage biggies Simon Russell Beale and Sinead Cusack (aka Mrs Jeremy Irons).

Despite TODAY’s attempts to cajole him into checking out our sunny isle, Spacey will be working in the sidelines for this one and it’s unlikely he’ll be dropping by.

Still, the 49-year-old actor was accommodating enough to give us a call straight from the Old Vic in London to clue us on how it feels to be the good guy in theatre.

How’s life at the Old Vic?
It’s been an incredible journey. I made a decision that it was gonna be my focus in life. I’ve been living six and a half years in London. I’ve done 24 productions in the Old Vic and starred in five of them. And I’ll do it another six years, I suspect.

The usual, eh? Ahem. How do you still find time to act in movies?
It hasn’t really changed. It’s just what my emphasis is. In terms of my film life, I still make movies. Even if the Old Vic didn’t exist, you’re lucky to make two films a year. Well, I made three last year and two this year.

There’s Shrink (an independent film about a shrink for Hollywood stars), which premiered at the Sundance Festival in January. I made a film with George Clooney and Ewan McGregor called Men Who Stare at Goats (the film is now in post-production). And I’ll be doing a couple of films this year.

One of the big draws to The Winter’s Tale is that we’ll be seeing movie stars on stage. You obviously know how it feels to be on both sides of the fence. Any thoughts on this trend?
It’s not quite like taking actors from a TV series and putting them on stage. There’s not a performer who is in The Bridge Project who is solely a movie actor who’s never done theatre. These are actors who’ve spent their lives in the theatre.

Ethan Hawk had his own theatre company. When I worked with him in (1989 comedy-drama) Dad, he was doing plays then. Josh Hamilton has done an enormous amount of theatre in New York. Simon Russell Beale and Sinead Cusack come from a great theatrical family. This is not a company where we’ve taken people who are simply known for movies.

But surely it gives a boost in terms of recognition?
There’s always an advantage. It helps awareness when audiences like their work. (But) we try to choose, and certainly Sam (Mendes) has chosen, the best actors for the roles. It’s not a conscious decision.

Have you acted in The Winter’s Tale yourself?
No, but I studied it in Shakespeare class in Julliard. One of my very first jobs after I left the school was a very, very tiny part in Henry IV, Part 1.

How would you rank The Winter’s Tale in Shakespeare’s oeuvre?
Wow, jeez, you know, I think, hmmm ... It’s always a question of when a play comes to life. For some people, The Winter’s Tale can be a bit confusing if it’s not done with clarity.

But Sam’s attack on the play has made it really understandable. It’s only when you do the play fully produced and fully explored that you begin to judge it.

Plays are meant to be performed and not just read. I’m so impressed with the performances and sheer beauty of staging that Sam’s done. The lighting, the set, the crispness of the stor ...

You recently gave props to mobile phones as a new vehicle for movie-making...
I wasn’t talking about major motion pictures but short films. It’s an opportunity for emerging film-makers to have this new audience of three billion people who use phones. It’s an opportunity to have access for short films. It’s a great platform.

What about watching plays on mobile phones. Do you think that’s feasible in the near future?
We know the theatre experience is a unique experience and, quite frankly, I want people to experience theatre in the theatre. I don’t want to change it to a different medium. I don’t think that putting plays on mobile phones would be a good idea ...

Can you tell us a bit about how The Bridge Project came about?
It was an idea that began to form over time because when I decided to take on the job at The Old Vic, Sam had been in the same position at (theatre company) Donmar Warehouse. We wanted to do work that would be epic, bigger in scope.

One day he said to me: “We’re missing something here. There’s something of the fact that I’m a British director in New York, and you’re an American in England.”

It was Sam’s notion based on both of our beliefs to have more of an exchange between British theatre and New York theatre. Eight years later, it’s finally come.

Should we see more plays from The Bridge Project here, is there any chance of you getting up on stage?
It’s definitely my intention to do three years (of the Project). We’ve yet to decide what to do. But it’s my intention to star in one of the shows.

The Winter’s Tale runs March 26 to 31, 8pm, at the Esplanade Theatre, with 3pm weekend matinees. Tickets at S$40 to S$325 from Sistic.
- TODAY/yb