Kevin Spacey
(57 years)
26 July 1959
South Orange, New Jersey, USA
5' 9¾" (1.77 m)
It allows an audience to come into a movie theatre and believe I am that person".
There are, however, certain biographical facts to be had - for starters, Kevin Spacey Fowler was the youngest of three children born to Kathleen Ann (Knutson) and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, in South Orange, New Jersey. His ancestry includes Swedish (from his maternal grandfather) and English. His mother was a personal secretary, his father a technical writer whose irregular job prospects led the family all over the country. The family eventually settled in southern California, where young Kevin developed into quite a little hellion - after he set his sister's tree house on fire, he was shipped off to the Northridge Military Academy, only to be thrown out a few months later for pinging a classmate on the head with a tire. Spacey then found his way to Chatsworth High School in the San Fernando Valley, where he managed to channel his dramatic tendencies into a successful amateur acting career. In his senior year, he played "Captain von Trapp" opposite classmate Mare Winningham's "Maria" in "The Sound of Music" (the pair later graduated as co-valedictorians). Spacey claims that his interest in acting - and his nearly encyclopedic accumulation of film knowledge - began at an early age, when he would sneak downstairs to watch the late late show on TV. Later, in high school, he and his friends cut class to catch revival films at the NuArt Theater. The adolescent Spacey worked up celebrity impersonations (James Stewart and Johnny Carson were two of his favorites) to try out on the amateur comedy club circuit.
He briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College, then left (on the advice of another Chatsworth classmate, Val Kilmer) to join the drama program at Juilliard. After two years of training he was anxious to work, so he quit Juilliard sans diploma and signed up with the New York Shakespeare Festival. His first professional stage appearance was as a messenger in the 1981 production of "Henry VI".
Festival head Joseph Papp ushered the young actor out into the "real world" of theater, and the next year Spacey made his Broadway debut in Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts". He quickly proved himself as an energetic and versatile performer (at one point, he rotated through all the parts in David Rabe's "Hurlyburly"). In 1986, he had the chance to work with his idol and future mentor, Jack Lemmon, on a production of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night". While his interest soon turned to film, Spacey would remain active in the theater community - in 1991, he won a Tony Award for his turn as "Uncle Louie" in Neil Simon's Broadway hit "Lost in Yonkers" and, in 1999, he returned to the boards for a revival of O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh".
Spacey's film career began modestly, with a small part as a subway thief in Se acabó el pastel (1986). Deemed more of a "character actor" than a "leading man", he stayed on the periphery in his next few films, but attracted attention for his turn as beady-eyed villain "Mel Profitt" on the TV series Wiseguy (1987). Profitt was the first in a long line of dark, manipulative characters that would eventually make Kevin Spacey a household name: he went on to play a sinister office manager in Éxito a cualquier precio (1992), a sadistic Hollywood exec in El factor sorpresa (1994), and, most famously, creepy, smooth-talking eyewitness Verbal Kint in Sospechosos habituales (1995).
The "Suspects" role earned Spacey an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and catapulted him into the limelight. That same year, he turned in another complex, eerie performance in David Fincher's thriller Seven (1995) (Spacey refused billing on the film, fearing that it might compromise the ending if audiences were waiting for him to appear). By now, the scripts were pouring in. After appearing in Al Pacino's Looking for Richard (1996), Spacey made his own directorial debut with Albino Alligator (1996), a low-key but well received hostage drama. He then jumped back into acting, winning critical accolades for his turns as flashy detective Jack Vincennes in L.A. Confidential (1997) and genteel, closeted murder suspect Jim Williams in Medianoche en el jardín del bien y del mal (1997). In October 1999, just four days after the dark suburban satire American Beauty (1999) opened in US theaters, Spacey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Little did organizers know that his role in Beauty would turn out to be his biggest success yet - as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged corporate cog on the brink of psychological meltdown, he tapped into a funny, savage character that captured audiences' imaginations and earned him a Best Actor Oscar.
No longer relegated to offbeat supporting parts, Spacey seems poised to redefine himself as a Hollywood headliner. He says he's finished exploring the dark side - but, given his attraction to complex characters, that mischievous twinkle will never be too far from his eyes.
In February 2003 Spacey made a major move back to the theatre. He was appointed Artistic Director of the new company set up to save the famous Old Vic theatre, The Old Vic Theatre Company. Although he did not undertake to stop appearing in movies altogether, he undertook to remain in this leading post for ten years, and to act in as well as to direct plays during that time. His first production, of which he was the director, was the September 2004 British premiere of the play Cloaca by Maria Goos (made into a film, Cloaca (2003)). Spacey made his UK Shakespearean debut in the title role in Richard II in 2005. In 2006 he got movie director Robert Altman to direct for the stage the little-known Arthur Miller play Resurrection Blues, but that was a dismal failure. However Spacey remained optimistic, and insisted that a few mistakes are part of the learning process. He starred thereafter with great success in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten along with Colm Meaney and Eve Best, and in 2007 that show transferred to Broadway. In February 2008 Spacey put on a revival of the David Mamet 1988 play Speed-the-Plow in which he took one of the three roles, the others being taken by Jeff Goldblum and Laura Michelle Kelly.
In 2013, Spacey took on the lead role in an original Netflix series, House of Cards (2013). Based upon a British show of the same name, House of Cards is an American political drama. The show's first season received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination to include outstanding lead actor in a drama series. - IMDb Mini Biography By: IMDb Editors
There are, however, certain biographical facts to be had - for starters, Kevin Spacey Fowler was the youngest of three children born to Kathleen Ann (Knutson) and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, in South Orange, New Jersey. His ancestry includes Swedish (from his maternal grandfather) and English. His mother was a personal secretary, his father a technical writer whose irregular job prospects led the family all over the country. The family eventually settled in southern California, where young Kevin developed into quite a little hellion - after he set his sister's tree house on fire, he was shipped off to the Northridge Military Academy, only to be thrown out a few months later for pinging a classmate on the head with a tire. Spacey then found his way to Chatsworth High School in the San Fernando Valley, where he managed to channel his dramatic tendencies into a successful amateur acting career. In his senior year, he played "Captain von Trapp" opposite classmate Mare Winningham's "Maria" in "The Sound of Music" (the pair later graduated as co-valedictorians). Spacey claims that his interest in acting - and his nearly encyclopedic accumulation of film knowledge - began at an early age, when he would sneak downstairs to watch the late late show on TV. Later, in high school, he and his friends cut class to catch revival films at the NuArt Theater. The adolescent Spacey worked up celebrity impersonations (James Stewart and Johnny Carson were two of his favorites) to try out on the amateur comedy club circuit.
He briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College, then left (on the advice of another Chatsworth classmate, Val Kilmer) to join the drama program at Juilliard. After two years of training he was anxious to work, so he quit Juilliard sans diploma and signed up with the New York Shakespeare Festival. His first professional stage appearance was as a messenger in the 1981 production of "Henry VI".
Festival head Joseph Papp ushered the young actor out into the "real world" of theater, and the next year Spacey made his Broadway debut in Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts". He quickly proved himself as an energetic and versatile performer (at one point, he rotated through all the parts in David Rabe's "Hurlyburly"). In 1986, he had the chance to work with his idol and future mentor, Jack Lemmon, on a production of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night". While his interest soon turned to film, Spacey would remain active in the theater community - in 1991, he won a Tony Award for his turn as "Uncle Louie" in Neil Simon's Broadway hit "Lost in Yonkers" and, in 1999, he returned to the boards for a revival of O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh".
Spacey's film career began modestly, with a small part as a subway thief in Se acabó el pastel (1986). Deemed more of a "character actor" than a "leading man", he stayed on the periphery in his next few films, but attracted attention for his turn as beady-eyed villain "Mel Profitt" on the TV series Wiseguy (1987). Profitt was the first in a long line of dark, manipulative characters that would eventually make Kevin Spacey a household name: he went on to play a sinister office manager in Éxito a cualquier precio (1992), a sadistic Hollywood exec in El factor sorpresa (1994), and, most famously, creepy, smooth-talking eyewitness Verbal Kint in Sospechosos habituales (1995).
The "Suspects" role earned Spacey an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and catapulted him into the limelight. That same year, he turned in another complex, eerie performance in David Fincher's thriller Seven (1995) (Spacey refused billing on the film, fearing that it might compromise the ending if audiences were waiting for him to appear). By now, the scripts were pouring in. After appearing in Al Pacino's Looking for Richard (1996), Spacey made his own directorial debut with Albino Alligator (1996), a low-key but well received hostage drama. He then jumped back into acting, winning critical accolades for his turns as flashy detective Jack Vincennes in L.A. Confidential (1997) and genteel, closeted murder suspect Jim Williams in Medianoche en el jardín del bien y del mal (1997). In October 1999, just four days after the dark suburban satire American Beauty (1999) opened in US theaters, Spacey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Little did organizers know that his role in Beauty would turn out to be his biggest success yet - as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged corporate cog on the brink of psychological meltdown, he tapped into a funny, savage character that captured audiences' imaginations and earned him a Best Actor Oscar.
No longer relegated to offbeat supporting parts, Spacey seems poised to redefine himself as a Hollywood headliner. He says he's finished exploring the dark side - but, given his attraction to complex characters, that mischievous twinkle will never be too far from his eyes.
In February 2003 Spacey made a major move back to the theatre. He was appointed Artistic Director of the new company set up to save the famous Old Vic theatre, The Old Vic Theatre Company. Although he did not undertake to stop appearing in movies altogether, he undertook to remain in this leading post for ten years, and to act in as well as to direct plays during that time. His first production, of which he was the director, was the September 2004 British premiere of the play Cloaca by Maria Goos (made into a film, Cloaca (2003)). Spacey made his UK Shakespearean debut in the title role in Richard II in 2005. In 2006 he got movie director Robert Altman to direct for the stage the little-known Arthur Miller play Resurrection Blues, but that was a dismal failure. However Spacey remained optimistic, and insisted that a few mistakes are part of the learning process. He starred thereafter with great success in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten along with Colm Meaney and Eve Best, and in 2007 that show transferred to Broadway. In February 2008 Spacey put on a revival of the David Mamet 1988 play Speed-the-Plow in which he took one of the three roles, the others being taken by Jeff Goldblum and Laura Michelle Kelly.
In 2013, Spacey took on the lead role in an original Netflix series, House of Cards (2013). Based upon a British show of the same name, House of Cards is an American political drama. The show's first season received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination to include outstanding lead actor in a drama series. - IMDb Mini Biography By: IMDb Editors
Trade Mark
Recognizable drawling voice
Often plays deceptively intelligent and ruthless men
Often plays cold-blooded and sadistic characters
Distinctive clipped manner of speaking
Deadpan delivery
Trivia
Auditioned for The Gong Show (1976) in 1978 and was rejected.Also attended Chatsworth High School with Val Kilmer.
His mother was his date for the Oscars the night he won.
Was Co-Valedictorian of his high school class at Chatsworth HS (1977).
Was paid 225 pounds per week for appearing in the play "The Iceman Cometh" at the Almeida Theatre in London (1998).
Ranked #56 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Went to Chatsworth High School in Los Angeles with Mare Winningham. During their senior year, Kevin played von Trapp and Mare played Maria in a school production of The Sound of Music. Upon hearing of their Oscar nominations in 1996, Winningham sent a telegram to Spacey saying: "Captain von Trapp - congratulations on your nomination - Maria."
The use of the name Spacey, while rumored as a combination of Spencer Tracy's names, is actually his mother's maiden name.
Voted greatest actor of the decade by Empire Magazine. [May 1999]
Kevin burnt his sister's tree house down when they were children. This caused his parents to opt for military school, which Kevin promptly left for Chatsworth.
Was the first choice to play the role of Lester Burnham in American Beauty (1999).
Appears twice in Total Film's (U.K) '10 Greatest Villains of All Time' poll. His "John Doe", from Seven (1995) came in at number 10, while his character in Sospechosos habituales(1995) was voted fifth. [February 2001]
Listed as one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best Actors
On People's (USA) 'Best-Dressed' list. [September 2000]
Studied drama at Juilliard School for 2 years.
Was expelled from Northridge Military Academy (in California) for throwing a tire at a classmate.
Won Broadway's 1991 Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for "Lost in Yonkers." He was also nominated in 1999 as Best Actor (Play) for a revival of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh."
His Labrador dog's name is Legacy.
Was the first Academy Award winner to be on Las noticias de Jon Stewart (1996).
During his appearance on BBC TV's Parkinson (1971) in March 2002, he did impressions of Jack Lemmon, Bill Clinton, Judi Dench, Katharine Hepburn, Al Pacino, Ian McKellen, Peter O'Toole and James Stewart.
Supporter of London's Old Vic Theater, co-hosting fund-raiser for it in NYC, April 2002.
Owns a Mini-Cooper.
Dedicated the Oscar that he won for Best Actor in American Beauty (1999) to Jack Lemmon. Spacey has said in interviews that he based his performance of Lester Burnham on Lemmon's C.C. Baxter in El apartamento (1960). Appropriately, there is also a family connection between those films: Lemmon's love interest was Shirley MacLaine, whose sister-in-law, Annette Bening played Spacey's wife.
Kevin Spacey's production company, TriggerStreet, is named after an actual street in the San Fernando Valley where Spacey grew up and dreamed of building a theatre and making movies. The late cowboy star Roy Rogers once owned a ranch on the land and named the street for his horse Trigger.
Named as Artistic Director of the Old Vic Theatre in London, England, UK.
Attended the UK Labour Party Conference with former US President Bill Clinton. [October 2002]
Has an older brother, Randall, and an older sister, Julie Ann. Has a nephew and a niece.
His father was a technical writer.
He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1999 (1998 season) for Best Actor for his performance in The Iceman Cometh.
When they were both performing on Broadway in 1998, he would often meet Dame Judi Dench during intermission or between shows.
He was awarded the 1998 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama) for Best Actor for his performance in The Iceman Cometh at the Almeida and at the Old Vic Theatres.
He was awarded the 1998 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Iceman Cometh.
17 April 2004, London - suffered a head injury after tripping over his dog while pursuing a young man who stole his cell phone. Initially, he reported that the injury was the result of a mugging, but later admitted the truth and stated that he was embarrassed by the situation.
His Oscar-winning performance as Verbal Kint from his film Sospechosos habituales(1995) (1995) was ranked #48 on the American Film Institute's Villains list in their compilation of the 100 years of The Greatest Screen Heroes and Villains.
Has said that working with Jack Lemmon on a stage production of Long Day's Journey Into Night (1987) (the TV edition of the stage production) changed his life. Previously possessive of a reckless ambition, he said he was amazed at how Lemmon was both a great actor and generous to a fault as both a co-star and a human being, teaching him that being a good person and a good actor were not mutually exclusive. He still considers Lemmon his role model.
Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, and Jason Robardsare his idols.
Father Thomas Fowler died in 1992. Mother Kathleen died of a brain tumor in 2003.
His guest appearance in La historia del crimen: The Senator, the Movie Star, and the Mob(1987) was his first major television appearance.
His performance as "Verbal Kint" in Sospechosos habituales (1995) is ranked #100 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Parodied a mad bald man, "Dr. Evil", in Austin Powers en Miembro de Oro (2002) while portraying a sinister bald man, "Lex Luthor", in Superman Returns (El regreso) (2006).
Has twice shaved his head completely bald to play the villain in movies. He did it to play "John Doe" in Seven (1995) and "Lex Luthor" in Superman Returns (El regreso) (2006).
Character Deadshot from Justice League voice and personality were based on Kevin Spacey.
As part of his research for the role of Bobby Darin in the film Beyond the Sea (2004), Spacey watched several of Michael Bublé's performances.
April 2000: The Los Angeles Times reported that he was being considered for the role of Inspector Clouseau, in La pantera rosa (2006). The following month, Spacey denied he was in negotiations for the role of Clouseau. He said he'd only had two conversations with MGM about the role, but that since the announcement, claiming he was in the running for it, he'd had to answer 8000 Pink Panther questions.
Has a black mongrel terrier called Mini. "She is named after the car.".
Huge fan of Professional Wrestling.
His older brother, Randy, makes a living as a Rod Stewart impersonator.
As of 2013, he is only one of 6 actors who have a 2-0 winning record when nominated for an acting Oscar. The others are Luise Rainer for El gran Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937); Vivien Leigh for Lo que el viento se llevó (1939) and Un tranvía llamado deseo (1951); Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) and Aeropuerto(1970); Hilary Swank for Boys Don't Cry (1999) and Million Dollar Baby (2004); and Christoph Waltz for Malditos bastardos (2009) and Django desencadenado (2012)..
Ranked #10 in the 2008 Telegraph's list "the 100 most powerful people in British culture".
To pay his way through Juilliard, he worked in Juilliard's admin office.
Co-hosted the Nobel Peace Prize concert for Al Gore because Tommy Lee Jones had to drop out at the last minute.
In 1970 he attended Northridge Military Academy in Northridge (Los Angeles) California, with producer/director Thomas R. Bond II.
Visited Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for Carnival. [February 2008]
Has never married or had children.
Thanked by the band Matchbox 20 in the liner notes of their album "Yourself or Someone Like You".
Lives in Los Angeles, California and New York City, New York.
In November of 2010, Prince Charles presented Kevin Spacey with an award for his services to drama. He was named an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition for his work at London's Old Vic theatre, where he has been Artistic Director since 2003.
Divides his time between London, England and Los Angeles, California.
Was the first Hollywood star to be cast as a lead actor in a fully Chinese-financed film: Dayyan Eng's Inseparable (2011).
In Total Film's The 150 Greatest Movie Performances of All Time, his Roger "Verbal" Kint in Sospechosos habituales (1995) was rated 39th.
In Total Film's Top 100 Greatest Movie Villains, he ranked 65 for his role as Buddy Ackerman in El factor sorpresa (1994). His Keiser Soze in Sospechosos habituales (1995) was ranked 52 and his John Doe in Seven (1995) was ranked 13.
In a Butterfields LA auction on September 10, 2001, the Oscar won by George Stoll for Levando anclas (1945) was being auctioned for $157,000. Kevin bought it and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Voted Man of the Year in Theater by GQ Magazine in 1999.
A guest at Simon Cowell's 50th birthday party.
Kevin's maternal grandfather was the son of Swedish parents. Kevin's other ancestry includes English and Welsh.
After he dropped out of Julliard, he worked as a shoe salesman and a super in his apartment building.
Credits Mel Profitt on Wiseguy (1987) as being his "breakthrough role.".
He and producer Dean Devlin have been friends since high school.
Was in Rolling Stone's "Hot" issue as "Hot Character" twice, in 1988 and 1995.
Starring in 'National Anthems' at the Old Vic, where he is also Artistic Director [February 2005]
Announced on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee (1988) that he will be directing and starring in a biopic about singer Bobby Darin. He will also be singing. [February 2003]
Currently starring in "The Philadelphia Story" at London's Old Vic Theatre [May 2005]
San Francisco, United States: Playing Richard 111 as part of The Bridge Project [October 2011]
Filming Corrupción en el poder (2010) in Toronto, Canada. [June 2009]
Epidavros, Greece: Playing Richard 111 as part of The Bridge Project [August 2011]
Currently playing the lead in Richard II at The Old Vic. [September 2005]
Slated to teach the theater course at Oxford University in the fall [June 2008]
London, England: Starring in "Richard III" at the Old Vic Theatre [July 2011]
His film, Beyond the Sea (2004), will be showing at the Toronto Film Festival, Sept 2004. [August 2004]
Filming for Superman Returns (El regreso) (2006). [July 2005]
Performing opposite Jeff Goldblum in "Speed-The-Plow" at The Old Vic, London. [February 2008]
Being Artistic Director of the Old Vic, he currently plays "A Moon for the Misbegotten", by Eugene O'Neill, opposite Eve Best. [September 2006]
As of 2014, has appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Armas de mujer (1988), L.A. Confidential (1997) and American Beauty (1999), with the latter winning in the category.
He grew up in California.
Was the first choice to play President Whitmore in Independence Day (1996), but an executive at 20th Century Fox refused to let producer Dean Devlin cast him in the role, feeling he didn't have the potential to be a big-time movie star. Ten months later, Spacey won his first Academy Award.
He was considered for the role of Silva in Skyfall (2012).
He was awarded an honorary CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama. He was awarded an honorary Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and theatre especially as artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre in London, England.
Shares the role of Lex Luthor with Gene Hackman, Michael Rosenbaum and Jesse Eisenberg. He and Rosenbaum appeared together in Medianoche en el jardín del bien y del mal (1997) for director Clint Eastwood, who also directed Hackman in Sin perdón(1992) and Poder absoluto (1997). Spacey and Hackman have also both won an Oscar for Best Actor and Supporting Actor. After winning Best Supporting Actor, they each appeared in a John Grisham adaptation: La tapadera (1993) and Tiempo de matar (1996). Spacey also produced La red social (2010), which Eisenberg appeared in.
Personal Quotes
[on winning the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in American Beauty (1999))] This has definitely been the highlight of my day.On American Beauty (1999): "I read the screenplay and nearly fell out of bed. I thought I better meet him quick before someone else read it".
Discussing occasional misconceptions by women that he is gay: For them it's a challenge. They want to be the one to turn me around. I let them.
My idea of credibility is primarily self-imposed and it all relates to the thing that I've been interested in as an actor and a director, which is what are you *willing* to live with as a human being? And there's things I'm just not willing to live with--and I won't. And if it means that I stop and find something else in life that interests me or challenges me, so be it.
The less you know about me, the easier it is to convince you that I am that character on screen. It allows an audience to come into a movie theatre and believe I am that person.
Success is like death. The more successful you become, the higher the houses in the hills get and the higher the fences get.
"Beyond the Sea (2004) is not a linear story at all. It's not what people will expect and it's not a biopic. It's my statement".
If you're lucky enough to do well, it's your responsibility to send the elevator back down.
as quoted in Woman's World, 2-22-05 issue.
I was beginning to feel I just didn't want to go through another 10 years of living in hotels, making three or four movies a year. I long for the ritual of theater. I adore it. And I want to do plays that challenge me.
The movies are not my first priority - the theater is.
If you look at how most artistic beginnings have been greeted in this country [UK], I'm in very good company. I know I'm a bigger target as long as I'm seen as a Hollywood movie star instead of as an actor of the theater, even an artistic director. They don't accept that I come in to work here every day, and have done for the last two-and-a-half years, and will continue to do so.
There is no prize, out there. The only prize is, this one, and what you feel and what you want to accomplish. And if you can, as you start out, these what could be lean years or could be fat years. I feel that I very often watch a lot of young people sort of meander around without any idea about why they're doing what they're doing. I mean to want and to be ambitious and to want to be successful, is not enough. That's just desire. To know what you want, to understand why you're doing it, to dedicate every breath in your body to achieve... If you feel you have something to give, if you feel that your particular talent is worth developing, is worth caring for then there's nothing you can't achieve.
"As far as I'm concerned, when I looked at what happened in my career in 2000 - after American Beauty (1999) - I thought it couldn't get much better. What was I going to spend the rest of my life doing? Trying to top myself? Trying to stay hot, trying to make sure I was in the right movies? I don't give a s**t. I'm trying to do something with my success which is bigger than myself. I'm no longer interested in my personal career. I am interested in the impact I can have on a lot of other people's careers and on audiences".
John Normington was a remarkable talent and all of us at the Old Vic are deeply saddened by his passing. We were fortunate to have John in the company of The Entertainer, where so many audiences had the chance to see his extraordinary performance as Archie Rice's father. John brought a wide range of experience to his characters throughout a diverse and successful career that touched the lives of all who worked with him. We were honored to have enjoyed John's company for as long as we had him. His spirit and influence remained throughout and now that same spirit joins the other great actors who have played the Old Vic stage, where he will always be remembered with admiration and affection. They don't make them like him anymore. We send our love and condolences to John's partner, family and friends.
[As Artistic Director of London's Old Vic Theatre] I'm living my dream. I'm doing it the way I want to do it. I'm working with an extraordinary group of people at that theatre who are dedicated and who really have in so many ways helped us discover what our ethos is.
I don't care about my personal acting career any more. I'm done with it. After 10 years of making movies and going better than I ever could have imagined, I sort of had to ask myself: What am I supposed to do with all of this success that I have had? Am I just going to keep making movie after movie and be concerned with all of that 'Are you up, are you down, are you hot, are you not?', and I don't really care. What I care about is working with people, what I care about is the remarkable experience of being able to be a part of bringing people together.
I was doing a play called 'The Iceman Cometh' at the Old Vic, and in the middle of the quietest moment of the second act, a phone started ringing. I felt the anger starting in my toes and it came right out of my mouth, as loud as anything else I'd said on the stage, I looked out to the audience and said, 'Tell them we're busy!' And it got a round of applause.
I love living in London. I can say with all sincerity that London is my home. This is my seventh year in London, fifth season at the Old Vic. I will never renounce being American but there is a part of me that is British now. I may go for dual citizenship, who knows?
(On traveling to Africa with Bill Clinton in 2002) He invited me. It was an opportunity to go to Africa, which I'd always been fascinated by. He's the first president to go there while he was in office. He went to raise money and awareness for a number of issues: AIDS, debt, economic relief. We went to seven different countries in 10 days-Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, and then to the town of Johannesburg for an event with Mandela. It was just a remarkable experience.
[on undertaking dark roles]: They're great parts! These are the parts audiences love to hate! First of all, you don't play a villain. You play a person who is doing things they think are quite justified. It's not one thing that makes a person do something. It's a lifetime of experience and motivations and relationships and terrors. We too often, conveniently and cutely, try to label everything so that we understand it, and there are things we'll never f---ing understand. ever. All we can do is just watch them.
[on Seven (1995)] I liked it because it was such a dangerous script and showed just what human beings are capable of. Here was a movie in which Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, who always win in every movie they ever do, simply don't win. I felt that was outrageous for a commercial movie....It's a great thriller or mystery, but on another level it's a film about the fact that, if you only look at a person through one lens, or only believe what you're told, you can often miss the truth that is staring you in the face. It's so easy for us to misperceive and see the things in others that we want to see. And, when we're wrong, and often we're dead wrong, we miss the truth.
[on Albino Alligator (1996)] Directing a film was something I was yearning to do. I always wanted to see if I had the capacity to be a good storyteller.
Sometimes the person who is the most logical is the person whom we call insane.
I'm lucky if I find one movie a year that's worth doing, and when I do find one, it usually only takes 20-30 days to shoot.
I'm aware that, from the outside, this looks like I've got quite an ego.
[on House of Cards (2013) and Netflix] This is a really new perspective... to drop them [release the episodes] all at once but I think that's how we watch TV now. Because this is the first time they [Netflix] are doing drama, they don't even have the offices to do this compared with the other networks. I feel sorry for the makers of the third series they do - when they have the offices (and can interfere).
[on the current state of film versus TV] I was lucky to get into film at a time (the 1990s) that was very interesting for drama. But if you look now, the focus is not on the same kind of films that were made in the 90s. When I look now, the most interesting plots, the most interesting characters, they are on TV.
[on Netflix airing all 13 episodes of House of Cards (2013) at once] I think in some ways maybe this proves, with the way in which an audience has been able to find the series, that we have learned the lesson the music industry didn't learn. Give people what they want it, in the form they want it in, at a reasonable price, and they will buy it and they won't steal it.
The camera doesn't know if it's a TV camera, or a streaming camera, or. a movie camera - it is just a camera. It doesn't change our process in terms of how we work. What did change our process was that we weren't obligated or asked by Netflix to do a pilot. We were just able to get on with the story-telling from the get-go.
I'm used to people thinking I'm nuts. And you know what? I kind of love it.
[on why he hasn't made a movie since Cómo acabar con tu jefe (2011)] Unless it's Martin Scorsese, and it's a really significant role, fuck off. I'm not playing someone's brother. I'm not playing the station manager. I'm not playing the FCC chairman.
The theater has always been dying. They've been saying that for centuries. And you know what, it just keeps limping along and doing alright. By the way, the single biggest money-making franchise in the United States is Broadway.... I think, and this is my honest opinion, as long as people want to tell stories, and as long as people want to hear those stories, the theater will be alive and well for all time. [2014]
[on the difference between working in film and on stage] Theater is my primary allegiance. And I've not only had such an extraordinary life in the theater, but I've also been given the incredible opportunity to have a life in film... But I always try to remember this: no matter how good an actor might be in movie, they'll never be any better in that movie. That's it. But in theater, we can be better next Tuesday than we were this Tuesday, we can be better infinitely. It is why we call the film 'Now.' It's not just the first word of the first sentence of the play, it is what theater is, it's NOW, it's at this moment, it's here and it's gone. And to people who think it's the same thing every night, I always make the analogy that it's like tennis. You can go out and play tennis eight times a week. And it's always the same rules, but it's always a different game, every single time. That's what it's like, when we go on stage every night. [2014]
I look at the last 10 years, where I've done a play every year... and I'd like to think that this decade has made me a better actor. All that work has prepared me to do the best work that I can do, and I'm pretty convinced that if I hadn't gone and done this, I wouldn't have been prepared for a thing like 'House of Cards.' [2014]
[on Cómo acabar sin tu jefe 2 (2014)] I think it is a little bit crazier. I'm very glad that almost everybody is back for it and I so love working with Jason Sudeikis and Jason Bateman and Charlie Day because being opposite them in a scene when they're riffing and they're improv-ing and they're trying different ways to do scenes, it is the hardest thing in the world not to absolutely lose your cookies. We spend most of our time laughing and any time somebody wants to pay me to come and laugh all day long, I'm there.
I am one of these actors where I believe very strongly that if you want to get a part, you have to do anything within reason to get that part. I admire Woody Allen so much. I was at a point where every time he announces a new movie, I never get an audition and nobody ever calls me to come in. I was like, "You know what? I am going to just write Woody Allen." So, I introduced myself and sent him a Netflix subscription and said "I don't know if you've seen my work, but you might want to watch this series." He wrote me back a warm and wonderful letter, and thanked me for the Netflix. He said he'd seen me play lots of different roles and said he absolutely would consider me in a film.
I was in a piano bar. Some guy was absolutely convinced that I was that musician...what's his name? The guy in Genesis? Phil Collins! To the point that I even put on a British accent and signed a napkin as him.
Salary
The Negotiator (1998) $4.500.000
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