Kevin Spacey rarely does interviews. By “rarely” I mean he probably does one major magazine interview a year, if that. Usually, his interviews are events. Kevin is a smart man, an interesting man, and a man obsessed with privacy. He does not want to talk about his personal life or his sexuality EVER. He just wants to talk about the work, and even then… he’s kind of grumpy about the work. Kevin has been killing it on House of Cards, winning some big awards and gaining politico fan-boys all over the place. In the new March issue of British GQ, Kevin talks about why he turned his back on American films, why he moved to the UK and what impact all of that had on his career:

Leaving Hollywood work after winning a second Oscar: “I do not look like guys in movies and I was seeing if I could build that career and it worked way better than I could ever have hoped. So there I was at the pinnacle of success, then the Academy Award, and I could see the change in people’s faces, this ‘Oh boy, now this is serious,’ but I was like ‘I don’t want to keep doing this same thing.’ I felt I don’t need to be maneuvering I don’t need to tart myself, I want something different. I don’t want to do the same thing for another ten years, I want a new challenge.”

Moving to Britain and taking over the Old Vic: “People who are really happy with themselves are f***ing boring. The worst word in the world is content. When I went to London, people thought I was f***ing crazy, ‘Why not sit around a Beverly Hills pool collecting residual cheques?’ That is not the kind of life I want.”

What Obama said to him: “Have you googled “Obama” and “achievement”? You can’t just look at one side of the story. He did say he wished Washington was as ruthlessly pragmatic as on House Of Cards. It must be enormously frustrating for Obama. There does seem to be in the US now an ideology and an entrenchment that has stopped people doing what they are hired to do, which is govern rather than run for office the whole time.”

On being friends with Bill Clinton: “We go way back. The thing is this: I never waited to see which way the wind was going to blow. That is not true of everyone. He remembered that.”

[From GQ UK]

I’m old enough to remember what a bid deal it was that Kevin Spacey just kind of tapped out of Hollywood shortly after winning his Oscar for American Beauty. To be fair, he followed up American Beauty with a series of critical bombs, like Pay It Forward and K-PAX. I kind of wish Spacey had figured out a way to move to the UK, do the theater work he enjoys AND take challenging film roles. He’s a brilliant actor if given the right role, which is why people enjoy House of Cards so much: it’s a return to form, it’s a promise fulfilled for Spacey’s talent.

Photos courtesy of British GQ.