Word: spacey
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...just in case you're thinking you can tell something about the man by the movies he makes, Spacey cautions against looking for clues in the weird, quirky roles he has chosen. "People presume I'm as complex as the characters I play, and I'm not. My job is to interpret what someone else has created." Indeed, during a two-hour conversation, the only moment when a glimpse of the real Spacey emerges is when he begins to bellow at questions about his penchant for playing bad guys. Still, as the actor's current hot status in Hollywood attests...
...When Spacey was a guest host on Saturday Night Live, the writers had him croon a Sinatra tune while subtitles quipped, "Kevin Spacey plays psychos...because he really is a psycho." He loved the skit, hated the media's typecasting. "Some of these films explored certain areas of how we treat each other that I find horrific, and that's why I wanted to do them," he says, practically seething. "But I have 16 years of work behind me, so I reject the notion that that's the only way people view...
...self-described Beavis and Butt-head goofball while growing up, Spacey, 38, moved around California frequently because his father, a technical writer, switched jobs often. Packed off to a military school after setting his sister's tree house on fire, Kevin was booted from the academy when he tossed a tire at a fellow cadet during a boxing match. He finally settled down at 14, when he saw a production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at a high school drama festival and caught the acting bug. He joined a drama class and studied alongside other fledgling thespians, including...
With money bummed from family friends, Spacey attended the Juilliard School's drama division in Manhattan. He left after two years and began living the actor-gypsy life. He appeared in regional theaters around the country, frequently returning to New York broke and sometimes homeless. Eventually he found work on Broadway, including his 1991 Tony Award-winning role in Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers. There also came television roles like bad guy Mel Profitt on Wiseguy and small parts in such movies as Heartburn and Working Girl...
...stage remains his primary passion. "Theater wasn't a stepping-stone to film," he says. "It's a continuing part of my life." After filming the action-tinged drama The Negotiator with Samuel L. Jackson this fall, Spacey will head to London next year for a stretch in The Iceman Cometh. Directors say he often applies theater disciplines to film. "He's like Meryl Streep because they both come at a movie script as if it's a play," says L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson. "They make the most out of their lines, while a lot of actors immediately...