"- The following is a conversation with Kevin Spacey, a two-time Oscar winning actor who has starred in "Se7en," "The Usual Suspects," "American Beauty" and "House of Cards." He is one of the greatest ..."

"You played a serial killer in the movie "Se7en." Your performance was one of, if not the greatest portrayal of a murderer on screen ever. What was your process of becoming him, John Doe, the serial ki..."

"So I got on a plane on that Sunday and I flew to Los Angeles and I went into where they were shooting, and I went into the makeup room and David Fincher was there, and we were talking about what shoul..."

"It is complicated and shows how nobody wins in the end when you're not operating with all the information. - When you say, "Say the words and mean them," what does "mean them" mean? - I've been very f..."

"- I mean, I guess what you're saying is it's extremely difficult to get to the bottom of a little less because the power, if we just stick even on "Se7en" of your performances in the tiniest of subtle..."

"- Look, I've been lucky with other directors. Sam Mendes is similar. I remember when I walked in to maybe the first rehearsal for "Richard III" that we were doing, and I had brought with me a canopy o..."

"And even if it's the darkest aspects of human nature, they're always there. I feel like I almost met them and gotten to know them and gotten to become like friends with them almost. Hannibal Lecter or..."

"I remember that there's been times in the creative process when something was pointed out to me or something was... I remember I was doing a play and I was having this really tough time with one of th..."

"And so he left and I sort of was left with this, "What? Like, what does that mean? How am I supposed to?" And then like a couple of days went by, a couple of days went by and I thought, okay, so I see..."

"but that just illustrates that even though in my brain I go, I always like to work backwards, I missed it in that one, and I'm very grateful to my friend for having pushed me into being able to realiz..."

"Where would the scene go if I didn't say that or I said something else? So that's how improv can be a valuable process to learn about limits and boundaries and what's going on with a character that so..."

"but what's different is attack, intention, how you are growing in a role and watching your fellow actors grow in theirs and how every night it's a new audience and they're reacting differently. And li..."

"- And if you start giggling on stage, everyone gets to see you do that too, which I am very guilty of. - I mean, there is something of a seduction of an audience in theater even more intense than ther..."

"I suppose that's part of acting in general, but theater especially. Just take risks, it's okay to embarrass the shit outta yourself including the director. - And it's also because you become a family...."

"to observe from people like Jack Lemmon who led many companies that I was fortunate to work in and be a part of. - There's also a sad moment where at the end everybody is really sad to say goodbye 'ca..."

"You know, you don't have to have the same, it just doesn't require the same kind of stamina that doing a play does. - It just feels like also in theater you have to become the character more intensely..."

"So much fun to watch people just come up with something right there. But, you know, that's where you're looking for laughs and you're specifically in a little scene that's being created. But I think i..."

"And I was like, "Yeah." And it was actually an incredibly generous thing that he gave me so that I would react. - Oh wow. Did they use that shot? because you were in the shot? - That's the take. It wa..."

"Well, I didn't quite get the part. They were gonna bring together the actors that they thought they were gonna give the parts to on a Saturday at Al's office. And they asked me if I would come and do ..."

"- Yeah, that's like one of the greatest ensemble cast ever. We got Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, you, Jonathan Pryce. It's just incredible. And I have to say, I mean may..."

"And I don't know if you know that I originally met Jack Lemmon when I was very, very young. He was doing a production at the Mark Taper Forum of a Sean O'Casey play called "Juno and The Paycock" with ..."

"- And he was like an idol and 12 years later, I read in the New York Times that he was coming to Broadway to do this production of a "Long Day's Journey Into Night," a year and some months after I rea..."

"And so I thought, you know, she's tired, she's probably gonna go home. So I took that and walked into this cocktail reception and ultimately went over to Dr. Miller, who was incredibly kind and said, ..."

"This is where I'm staying. Make sure your people get to me. We start auditions on Thursday." And on Thursday, I had an opportunity to come in and audition for this play that I've been working on and p..."

"And I ended up spending the next year of my life with that man. - So it turns out he was right. - Yeah. - This world works in mysterious ways. It also speaks to the fact of the power of somebody you l..."

"and how that ultimately influenced what I was able to do. Sam Mendes had never directed a film before "American Beauty." And so what he did was he took the best elements of theater and applied them to..."

"And so we did some... I mean, first of all it was just a great direction. And then second of all, we did some things that people don't know we did to aid that gradual shift of that man's character. Fi..."

"that he doesn't ever change. And in fact I thanked Jack when I won the Oscar and I did my thank you speech and I walked off stage and I remember I had to sit down for a moment because I didn't want to..."

"- Well, I mean, some people think "Clockwork Orange" is a comedy, and I'm not saying there aren't some good laughs in "Clockwork Orange" but yeah, you know, it's... - I mean, yeah. What's that line be..."

"- Sure. Well, I mean, you know, it's like the great "Mary Tyler Moore Show" where they can't stop giggling at at the clown's funeral. I mean, it's just one of the great episodes ever. You know, giggli..."

"from so many people. I mean, I used to get stopped and someone would say to me, "When I first saw 'American Beauty,' I was married, and the second time I saw it, I wasn't." And I was like, "Well, we w..."

"in the anger and in the absurdity of sort of taking a stand against the conformity of life, there's this humor. And I read somewhere that the scene, the dinner scene, which is kind of play like where ..."

"- Or Nicholson in "The Shining." I mean, there's some family scenes gone awry in that movie. - The contrast between you and Annette Bening in that scene creates the genius of that scene. So how much o..."

"- What kind of interesting direction did you get from Sam Mendes in how you approach playing Lester in how to take on the different scenes? There's a lot of just brilliant scenes in that movie. - Well..."

"- And I guess that's what a great director must do, is have the guts in that moment to reshoot everything. I mean, that's a pretty gutsy move. - I got two other little things to share with you about S..."

"and the trial is gone." And I was like, "What? What are you talking about?" And here's my other little favorite story about Sam and when we were shooting in the valley, one of those places I flew, thi..."

"and the only time I did it was in this little hallway. - And once again, a great performance lies in doing less. The innocence and the purity of Lester. - He knew I would've come into the studio and f..."

"And I think that in itself is just beautiful. - Mortality also permeates the film. You know, it starts with acknowledging that death is on the way that Lester's time is finite. You ever think about yo..."

"but I certainly would like to be at a place where if I were to drop dead tomorrow, it would've been an amazing life. - So Lester got there. It sounds like Dick Van Dyke got there. You're trying to get..."

"Is that right? - Yes. - I think that's really important, again, in terms of due process. And I read a lot and I watched a lot in preparation for this, on this point, including, of course, the recently..."

"- Just to clarify, I think you are often too pushy with the flirting, and that manifests itself in multiple ways but just to make clear, you never prevented anyone from leaving if they wanted to. You ..."

"- From everything I've seen in public interactions with you, people love you. Colleagues love you, coworkers love you. There's a flirtatiousness. Another word for that is chemistry. There's a chemistr..."

"Is that something you understand? - Yes, and I also understand that there are people who met me and spent a very brief period of time with me, but presume I was now going to be their mentor and then b..."

"- I think that's also speaks to a dark side of fame. The sense I got is that there are some people, potentially a lot of people trying to make friends with you in order to get roles, in order to advan..."

"- [Lex] Privately. - Privately, which is where amends should be made. - Were they able to start finding forgiveness? - Absolutely. Some of the most moving conversations that I have had when I was dete..."

"- For most of your life, you were not open with the public about being gay. What was the hardest thing about keeping who you love a secret? - That I didn't find the right moment of celebration to be a..."

"I am sorry about the way I came out, but Evan and I had already had the conversation. I had already decided to come out. And so it wasn't like, oh, I was forced to come out, but it was something I dec..."

"I will admit that. - Well, from the public perception, the first part of that... So first of all, the second part is a horrible way to come out. Yes, we all agree. And then the first part from the pub..."

"But at the moment, I was sort of being told I couldn't push back, you have to be kind, you can't... I think, you know, even to me now, none of it sounds right but I don't know that I could have said a..."

"- I don't think it's about the industry. I think it's about our time. I think it's the time that we're in and people are very afraid. - Just afraid, just a general fear of (indistinct). - No, they're ..."

"Now let's go to the beginning of that show. - [Kevin] Okay. - One of the greatest TV series of all time. A dark, fascinating character in Frank Underwood. A ruthless, cunning, borderline evil politici..."

"It is a different kind of sharing than when a character's doing a monologue opening of "Henry IV." And while there are some people who believe that direct address was invented in Ferris Bueller, it wa..."

"I'd say all this stuff when we do a read through of the script, I go, "I don't think I need to say any of that." And they were like, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, the audience knows all of that. ..."

"No matter how long something was, we would try to do it in one take, the direct addresses. So there was never a cut. When we went out on locations, we started to then find ways to cut it and make it s..."

"They literally had to drag me from one place to another scene. "Now it's the scene with Hasting. Now it's the scene..." But I now understand these wonderful stories that you can read in old books abou..."

"we can see two Richard IIs. That's part of the thrill that we don't own these parts. We borrow them and we interpret them. And what Ian McKellen might do with a role could be completely different from..."

"then I'm afraid we're gonna have to cancel the event. There's just no way that..." So anyway, then, "Oh no, it's fine." Now I know what was happening. What was happening was that someone had read the ..."

"and Frank Underwood would share like a charisma. There's certain presidents that just have, politicians that just have this charisma you can't stop listening to them. Some of it is the accent, but som..."

"and I was sort of the last man standing in terms of fighting against... Netflix had never had any creative control at all. We had complete creative control, but over time they started to get themselve..."

"So there are those kind of arguments that can happen. And you know, they're different arguments on different levels and they sometimes have to do with, I mean look, go back to "The Godfather," they wa..."

"- And for that day you fall in love with that movie, you might even say to a friend that that is the greatest movie of all time. - And also I think it's the degree with which directors are daring. I m..."

"I have a pretty good Nicholson story though that nobody knows. - You also have a pretty good Nicholson impression, but what's the story? - The story was told to me by a sound man, Dennis Maitland, who..."

"(Lex laughs) - Man, I love that guy. Unapologetically himself. - Oh yeah. - Your impression of him, like at the AFI, it was just great. - [Kevin] Well, that was for Mike Nichols. - [Lex] Oh yeah, he h..."

"I said, "Okay." So I then started to learn Phil. And the way it works when you're in understudy, unless you're a name, they don't let you rehearse on the stage. You just rehearse in a rehearsal room. ..."

"although I never went on as Jerry Stiller's part. And then I left the play and I guess about two months later, I get this phone call from Mike Nichols. He's like, "Kevin, how are you?" And I'm like, "..."

"- What was Christopher Walken like? He's a theater guy too. - Oh yeah, he started out as a cours boy, dancer. - Well, I could see that. - Yeah. - The guy knows how to move. - Well, it was fun. I've kn..."

"I mean, the fact that you use that word is perfectly fine. That's your, you know... But it's like people asking me, you know, "Was I really from "CapEx or not?' You know, it just entirely depends on y..."

"- [Lex] Without judgment. - Without judgment. - In "Gulag Archipelago," Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously writes about the line between good and evil, and that it runs through the heart of every man. So..."

"- And the thing you wanted from them and for them is less hate and more love. Did your dad say he loves you? - I don't have any memory of that. I was in a program and they were showing us an experimen..."