Thursday, January 16, 1997
The latest follower of the actor-turned-director trend, ‘Usual
Suspects’ star Kevin Spacey explains the lessons he learned from
directing his upcoming film ‘Albino Alligator.’By Emily Forster
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
owadays it is all the rage. Actors scooting into the director’s
chair is a common move in the ’90s, particularly in cinema. Take
the case of Oscar winner Kevin Spacey.
Playing challenging, sociopathic characters like a tyrannical
studio exec in "Swimming with Sharks," a prophesying serial
murderer in "Seven" and, of course, the soft-spoken criminal in
"Usual Suspects," this Juliard alumnus has taken a leap in his
career by directing the dramatic "Albino Alligator."
But the leap was not too risky. After all, Spacey has learned a
great deal about directing from his acting experience.
"I’ve been on all kinds of different sets," Spacey says. "I’ve
been on sets with directors who were screamers. They aren’t that
pleasant. Nobody works any harder and nobody walks any faster when
somebody’s screaming at them. It was very important to me to have
an environment where people felt safe, that they were having a lot
of fun, and hopefully they forget that they’re coming to work
everyday."
And as he admits his film had "a very pleasant environment," it
is clear that his directing venture has left Spacey pleased.
Sitting at the Four Seasons with an oddly blond-streaked head of
hair and an easy smile, Spacey explains the successes and failures
surrounding his directorial debut.
"You discover a lot about yourself when suddenly there’s 65
people asking you question after question and you are the person
that needs to answer them," Spacey says. "When I directed, I
deliberately and intentionally tried to help from the helm because
(when you direct) everyone is looking at you in this leadership
role."
In handling the pressure of having cast and crew members rely on
his authority, Spacey looked to past mentors like "Usual Suspects"
director Bryan Singer. He found that by trusting his cast members,
he gained their trust in return.
"I adopted with this movie the same thing that Bryan adopted
with me in ‘Usual Suspects,’ which is let’s not go to dailies,"
Spacey says. "Let’s not go every day and judge the work and fall in
love with it. Let’s trust each other and let’s just divorce
ourselves from that aspect of judgement. I don’t think that my film
is nearly as accomplished as ‘Usual Suspects’ at all, on many, many
levels. But I’m grateful for what I learned this first time out and
I think a lot of it had to do with the experience with Bryan. My
actors trusted me enough to not want to go to dailies, to not have
to see them, so we sort of used a similar approach."
Although on-the-job training is a major influence in Spacey’s
career, it is not the only one. As a student at the world renowned
Juliard, Spacey picked up a lot of technical skills that he still
finds useful.
"No one can underestimate the value of a good education, even if
you’re an actor or a performer," Spacey says. "Acting can’t be
taught, let’s just say. But what you learn technically, what you
learn about giving a performance every single night, 11 months out
of the year and never losing your voice, always being there, always
trying a different way, it’s invaluable.
"The training that I got there I’m still learning because
there’s a lot of stuff that you accumulate in school that you just
don’t have the context to put it in. What has often happened to me
is I’ll be at rehearsal with a director or an actor, and someone
will say something, and a flashcard will come down in front of my
eyes. Something a teacher had said to me at Juliard will flash in
front of me I’ll go ‘Agh, that’s what they were talking about.’ I
never understood it because I didn’t have a context to put it in.
It had no relationship to me. It was just information."
But after many years as a Shakespearean performer on Broadway, a
television actor in "Wiseguy" and a film actor in movies like "The
Ref" and "Outbreak," his education has become more relevant to him.
It is not just information to Spacey anymore.
"Suddenly you find yourself six years later, 10 years later in
some cases, where (a lesson) suddenly means something to you
personally," Spacey says. "Now you understand it and now, finally,
the lesson has been learned. That’s the great thing about training,
that’s the great thing about paying attention, even if you don’t
understand it. There were a lot of things that teachers said to me
and I thought ‘You are just wacked. That makes no sense to me at
all.’ But of course it didn’t. I remember when I was growing up in
high school they made you read the 10 greatest novels ever written
in the history of the world and they were going to test you on it
at the end of the year. I’m sorry, I wasn’t ready to read the 10
greatest novels at age 15. I hadn’t had any experience in life with
which to be able to appreciate what those books were about. So when
you go back when you’re in your late 20s and your 30s and you read
those books again you go ‘I didn’t get it then.’"
It is not just novels that Spacey is beginning to analyze and
attempting to understand as he matures. Philosophical questions
like the good or evil of nature mankind have kept Spacey thinking.
But more importantly, these issues have guided Spacey’s career. It
was his pondering of the good and evil tendencies of humans that
lead him to the screenplay of "Albino Alligator."
"We don’t know what any of us are capable of from second to
second," Spacey says. "We just don’t know what the person next to
us is capable of. That’s what interested me in the script for
‘Albino Alligator’ Â not whether people live or die, but what
people are willing to live with.
"Those questions are just interesting and they’re also questions
that, at the same time that I found this script I was asking as an
actor in ‘Seven,’ in ‘Usual Suspects’ and ‘Swimming with Sharks.’
These questions of ‘What is it that people are capable of doing in
order to get what they want?’ It was an interesting territory. I
think people walk out of the movie feeling different things and for
me that’s been very satisfying."
The most obvious example of Spacey’s pondering over the good and
evil in men is the main character in the film, Dino. Played by
Spacey’s buddy, successful actor Matt Dillon ("Drugstore Cowboy,"
"Singles") the character is a morally ambiguous one.
"Matt Dillon’s character is all about not being able to figure
what he’s going to do," says Spacey. "I think you can get a grip on
pretty much everyone else in this movie, but with Matt, you’re like
‘Who the fuck is this guy?’ Because you like him and you don’t like
him, and he’s a thug and then he’s charming. The whole film you
can’t get your hands on him.
"That’s exactly what we wanted to go for because the whole movie
is about the struggle between good and evil. It keeps you off
balance the whole film. Matt will probably take some knocks for it,
but I think it’s very courageous because he never asks for your
sympathy."
But the real question is, will Spacey take the same knocks for
"Albino Alligator" that he has suspected Dillon will endure? Only
time will tell, but Spacey does not seem too concerned.
"I’ve learned a lot and it’s my first creative baby," says
Spacey. "I’m sure that the flaws in the film will be pointed out to
me very soon, but the fact of the matter is the movie has a life.
There are a lot of movies that are made for a lot more money that
don’t have a life.
"Now I’m interested in asking different questions. I’m searching
different territory now, both as an actor and as a director because
in life, in this journey, there are always questions."
Miramax Films
Kevin Spacey, Oscar winner for "The Usual Suspects," makes his
directorial debut directing Faye Dunaway in Miramax’s "Albino
Alligator."Miramax Films
Matt Dillon stars as the main character Dino in "Albino
Alligator."Miramax Films
(l. to r.), Viggo Mortensen, John Spencer, Faye Dunaway, Gary
Sinise and William Fichtner star in "Albino Alligator."