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 With new documentary "Now: In the Wings on a World Stage,"
Spacey lets his personal passion for theater roar in a film that
introduces audiences to his second career on the stage as he
tours the world with his own company's production of William
Shakespeare's historical play "Richard III."
Spacey, 54, who has been the artistic director at London's the
Old Vic theater since 2003, said his choice to cut back on his
Hollywood career and devote his time to the stage, struck many
as a self-defeating project.
"A lot of people looked at me like a dog that's sort of a little
puzzled," the star said with a smile. "'Like, why do you do
theater, and why did you go off and run this theater for 10
years? I don't get. And isn't theater boring? Why don't you just
do movies and make a lot of money?'"
The documentary, which is directed by first-time filmmaker
Jeremy Whelehan, gives a behind-the-scenes look into the
production, play and tour of the trans-Atlantic theater group,
the Bridge Project, a three-year venture between Spacey's Old
Vic, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and director Sam Mendes.
"Now: In The Wings" opens in New York on Friday and is available
for online download on Friday, rolling out to Los Angeles movie
theaters next week after playing limited runs in other U.S.
cities. It opens in the United Kingdom on June 9.
It follows the project's final production through rehearsals and
its international tour to places such as Beijing, Doha, San
Francisco and Greece's ancient amphitheater at Epidaurus.
Shakespeare's 16th century play, based on England's medieval
King Richard III, dramatizes Richard's bloody advance to the
throne, all with a black comedy turn. For the part of Richard,
Spacey dons a hunchback and affects a club-footed gait to mimic
the antihero's crumpled physical appearance.
Front and center in the film is Spacey's love of theater. He
especially relishes the stage as the ultimate actor's realm,
whereas film and TV belong to directors, editors and producers.
SHAKESPEARE MEETS ARAB SPRING
"I think for the actor, working in film, you learn how to work
in two- to three-minute segments," he said. "But in theater you
have to be up there for three hours - and you have to do it
once. You can't have a second take."
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Spacey, who won a best actor Oscar for his role as an unhappy
suburban father in Mendes' 1999 film "American Beauty," became
animated speaking about theater, likening playing the same role
nightly to an athlete improving his game.
"I always try to remember that no matter how good I might be in a
film or a television show, I'll never be any better. It's frozen,"
Spacey said. "In the theater, I can be better. I can be better
tomorrow night than I was tonight."
During the company's 10-month world tour over the course of 2011 and
2012, a particular poignant moment comes when the play travels to
Doha, the Qatar capital ruled by a monarchy, during the Arab Spring
popular movement that ousted regional strongmen after decades of
power.
"I actually based one of my costumes on Gaddafi," Spacey said about
the longtime Libyan ruler who was killed in 2011.
"Suddenly the Arab Spring was happening and it was sort of
incredible to be in places where you could go home and on CNN and
you could watch the very images we were evoking on stage."
Although Spacey's screen career has caught a second wind in
middle-age as the star of Netflix's popular political thriller
"House of Cards," he credits his move back to the stage for helping
him with the role of ruthless politician Francis Underwood, which is
coincidentally based on Richard III.
"I wouldn't have been ready for 'House of Cards' 10 years ago," he
said. "But I was ready this time and that's because of the theater."
(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Lisa Shumaker)
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