Kevin Spacey has a long history of dropping Christmastime videos as his character Frank Underwood from House Of Cards, but this year, his newest is attracting a lot more attention as it’s an interview with Tucker Carlson. The seven-plus minute clip of the two talking has already attracted millions of views and has elicited a wide range of reactions, as the conversation seems to waffle back and forth between obviously fictional statements and real life commentary delivered in character.
The surprise video was uploaded to Tucker Carlson’s Twitter account, as well as YouTube, on Christmas Eve and went viral almost immediately. On the surface, it’s a vehicle for Spacey’s Frank Underwood to tease a possible presidential run, but not so subtly deeper than that, it’s a chance for the two men to bond over “both getting canned” and to point the finger at Fox and Netflix. They also take aim at society for being driven by fear and being too sensitive nowadays. You can watch the clip below…
It’s hard to find two more divisive figures in modern popular culture than Kevin Spacey and Tucker Carlson. The former won two Academy Awards, a Tony Award and numerous additional honors during a lauded career that spanned the 80s, 90s and 00s, but after allegations of sexual assault, he was fired from his hit show House Of Cards in 2017. Several other accusers came forward with their own stories, and he was subsequently removed entirely from his then-upcoming film All The Money In The World. He’s since been found not guilty in multiple trials, but some of his accusers also died before their day in court. He remains mostly excommunicated from Hollywood and the larger acting community, though he also has some high profile defenders, including Tucker Carlson.
Carlson himself was also fired, though under different circumstances. The exact details around what happened at Fox are still unclear, but like Spacey, he was the star of one of his network’s most popular shows. Then suddenly, he was abruptly terminated. Rumors have swirled it involved everything from Tucker's text messages to a speech that had too many references to prayer to ongoing fallout from the Dominion lawsuit. Regardless, he was suddenly gone, and now releases his show on X/ Twitter.
The interview between Spacey and Carlson is littered with comments from both men that take aim at so-called traditional media and at their former networks. It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to see both are still extremely angry about what happened to them. Exactly where they go from here, however, is anyone’s guess. Spacey has dabbled a little bit in acting lately, but unless something major changes, he seems unlikely to have a major comeback in a big budget movie. Carlson reportedly got some offers from smaller networks after he was booted from Fox, but he chose to go his own route through Twitter. It seems unlikely a major network will approach him anytime soon with an offer.
