Amateur actors should be forced to audition for roles. Up-and-coming actors should need to lobby filmmakers for parts. Kevin Spacey should have to do neither at this stage of his career. He’s a two-time Oscar winner (for The Usual Suspects and American Beauty). He is a Golden Globe and Emmy nominee. And yet, as he tells it, he still has to petition legendary directors if he hopes of entering a collaboration.
In an interview with GQ, Spacey tells a fascinating story of the method he used to try and catch the eye of 77-year-old icon Woody Allen. According to Spacey:
"I wrote him a letter and introduced myself as an actor he may or may not know. And I sent him a Netflix subscription, because I want him to watch my work [in House of Cards. … I may write to Martin Scorsese next."
Guess what? It worked. Spacey says that Allen wrote back, thanked him for the subscription, and now says that the actor is in the pool of potential candidates for a future project. SO for those of you keeping score at home, Andrew "Dice" Clay has appeared in more Woody Allen films than Kevin Spacey, and probably didn’t have to buy Woody a gift in order to secure his Blue Jasmine part. Hickory, dickory, dwell on that for a few minutes.
Spacey is fantastic in House of Cards -- mainly because he has the ferocious Robin Wright to play off of … but he’s also mesmerizing in his solo scenes. I can understand why he might want to use the Netflix original series to showcase his talents, but there are countless other projects I’d use to show off his refined skills. What would you select for a Spacey highlight reel?
And, of course, this:
Spacey could be running out of time. Allen is 77, and peers like Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford are slowing down. Though the director is riding high on Jasmine, no one knows how many more films Allen has in the tank. I wonder if Spacey did enough to make sure he’s part of one of the next ones?
