BEVERLY HILLS — Kevin Spacey takes his sardonic humor to heart. The Academy Award-winning actor who has perfected the sarcastic remark in such films as L.A. Confidential and The Usual Suspects unleashes another vitriolic attack in Hurlyburly.
As Mickey, a casting agent who leaves his wife to crash with friend Eddie (Sean Penn), Spacey makes his vile character truly entertaining. In the course of the film, Mickey sleeps with Eddie’s girlfriend Darlene (Robin Wright Penn), insults Eddie’s best friend Phil (Chazz Palminteri) and alienates just about every other character in the film. Spacey said he enjoyed the chance to flex his dialogue muscle in Hurlyburly.
“For those of us who love stories that are about ideas, and ideas being expressed, and dialogue, it was very easy for us to join on and want to do it,” he said. “It’s a challenging exploration of how these particular characters deal with each other, and negotiate their relationships, and use language to deflect and motivate, and attack and deflect their own emotions. For me, I just adore the interplay.”
Spacey, 39, reflects the same precision and intensity off-screen as on-camera in a black leather jacket and putty silk shirt at the posh Four Seasons Hotel. His carefully worded answers guard a private person who dislikes interviews, and he refuses to analyze his own work. When pressed for similarities between the Hollywood satires Hurlyburly and “Swimming with Sharks,” Spacey denied a connection.
“That’s only if you see a pattern,” he said. “I don’t see a pattern. To me, it’s not so much a story about Hollywood, it’s just the backdrop of it is that. And it’s only that because [playwright] David Rabe came out here once a number of years ago, and he stayed in this house with these two casting directors. I guess he witnessed an extraordinary amount of decadence and decided to write a play about it.'”
Spacey understudied in the role of Mickey in the original Broadway production of Hurlyburly thirteen years ago. The journey from stage to screen took more than a decade because several studios refused the dialogue-heavy script. Writer David Rabe adapted his play for the screen by shortening it considerably to clock in at two hours for the film version.
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P ALIGN=LEFT>Director Anthony Drazan persevered until Fine Line Features stepped in with financing of four million. Despite the low budget, the project attracted A-list talent like Meg Ryan, Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn. Spacey said his paycheck is less important than the integrity of the material.
“I don’t do things for money,” he said. “There isn’t a choice. I try to do the things that I believe in, if they’re projects that happen to be bigger studio movies, then that’s fine. If they’re independently driven like Hurlyburly, I try to follow my heart and not follow the paycheck.”
For Ordinary Decent Criminal, Spacey follows his heart to the Emerald Isle to play an Irish gangster across from Linda Fiorentino. Spacey also co-produced Criminal through his own production company Trigger Street. From crimes of the state, he moves to crimes of the heart in the DreamWorks film American Beauty. Spacey co-stars with Annette Bening as a married couple who find their union disintegrating in the black comedy.
After winning the Oscar in 1996 for Best Supporting Actor in The Usual Suspects, Spacey went on to try his hand at directing with Albino Alligator. Although the film did not take much of a bite out of the box office, Spacey said he does plan to return to directing, but would not disclose any further details. He said the Oscar did not change his perception of the film world, but added prestige to his reputation.
“I think it changes things in terms of how people perceive you,” he said. “For me, it didn’t change so much internally or how I view the world. I’m still trying to use the same benchmark of quality. Now, of course, I have this measuring stick, which is that particular movie at that particular time for me, I now have to do everything I can to honor that, and keep doing work that challenges me.”
