E2 MOVIES Spacey finds depth in portrayal of Abramoff
Jailhouse interview, research informed actor for “Casino Jack” role
BY JEN CHANEY On the surface, Kevin Spacey
and Jack Abramoff don’t appear to share much in common. Spacey is a Democrat.
Abramoff is a Republican. Spacey starred in a high school
production of “The Sound ofMu- sic.” During his teen years, Abramoff was a wrestler. Spacey is best known for his
roles in films such as “American Beauty” and “The Usual Sus- pects.” Abramoff? He’s known as thelobbyistwhorosehighandfell hard, ultimately serving time in federal prison after beingconvict- ed on multiple charges related to widespreadcorruptionandfraud. But spend an hour at breakfast
with Spacey at the JeffersonHotel in Washington — where he has cometo discuss hisGoldenGlobe- nominated portrayal of Abramoff in the new film “Casino Jack,” which opensWednesday—and it becomes clear where the Spacey/ Abramoff Personality Venn Dia- grammay overlap. Spacey, an actor who often
plays ambitious, even ruthless men, is at turns charming (a word Spacey also uses to describe Abramoff ), defensive, potty- mouthed and passionate, as well as prone to doing impressions, a trait thatheshares withAbramoff and that is on display in “Casino Jack.” He even dumps a healthy amount of sugar into his cafe au lait, laughing when a reporter reminds him that, as Abramoff, he does that in the movie. “Yes, it’s the little things that
people informed me of that we tried to infuse into the film,” he says with a smile. Political junkies—and anyone
whosawthe first of this year’s two Abramoff movies, Alex Gibney’s documentary “Casino Jack and theUnited States ofMoney”—are familiar with how Abramoff and colleagues tried todefraudIndian tribes of millions .They alsoknow that a subsequent FBI investiga- tion uncovered evidence of sweeping misconduct that led to
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010
LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST ACCLAIMEDACTOR:Kevin Spacey, pictured at theD.C. premier of "Casino Jack" onNov. 5, says lobbyist Jack Abramoff was “very forthcoming” in his interview,
criminal charges against Abramoff,HouseMajorityLeader TomDeLay, formerU.S. represen- tativeBobNey, formerDeLay aide Mike Scanlon, and other congres- sional staffers and lobbyists. But it’s the details — the little
things, as Spacey calls them — that people may not know and that often work their way into “Casino Jack,” a satirical, hyper- bolic version of the events that led to the 2004 ethics scandal. Example: how Abramoff wore
the unfortunate “Godfather”-like fedora and trench coat to a 2006 courthouse appearance. “He opened his closet, grabbed
the first hat that he could grab, the trench coat because it was
raining, and went outside,” Spac- ey says, noting that Abramoff of- ten kept his head covered in pub- lic because of his Orthodox Jew- ish faith. “And he never thought about, what will this look like? . . . That’s why I wore the hat several times in the movie before that scene. I didn’t want to make a big point of it, and I didn’t want to have a dialogue about it, but there is a subliminal thing that can happen with an audience, which is, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s that black hat. Oh, he always wore that black hat.’ ”
Spacey uncovered that kind of
information through extensive research that involved absorbing news coverage of the Abramoff case, much of which he had missed because he lives in Lon- don; speaking with Abramoff ’s friends and former colleagues; and spending six hours last year at a federal prison in Cumber- land, Md., getting to know the manhimself. Spacey describes Abramoff as
“very forthcoming” during their prison conversation. But press for too many details, and the two- timeAcademyAwardwinner bor- rows from the same playbook Abramoff used during a 2004
IDP/ATO PICTURES ‘EARLY PRAISE:Kevin Spacey has been nominated for aGolden Globe as Abramoff.
Senate hearing: He pleads the Fifth. “I’mnotgoing toanswerspecif-
ic questions, and I’ll tell youwhy,” he says. “Because I felt it was very gracious of him to have met with me. I mean, he could have told us to go [expletive] off. I simply keep the content of that meeting pri- vate, because Idon’twantto use it
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for fodder. I also want to be very careful that I do not speak for him. . . . At whatever point he makes a decision to start talking about his experience, he can do that in hisowntimeandunderhis own conditions.” Abramoff hasn’t spoken yet. Currently serving probation after completing his prison sentence this month, he did not respond to requests for comment via his at- torney, Abbe Lowell, or his Face- book page. Critical response to “Casino
Jack” has been tepid, but Spacey’s performance earned a Golden Globenomination, as well as early praise from some media outlets, including the Hollywood Report- er. (For the record, it’s not Spac- ey’s only well-received film ac- complishment of the year; he also acted as executive producer of “The SocialNetwork.”) A self-identified friend of
Abramoff ’s stood up at last month’s D.C. premiere and thanked the actor for accurately capturing the one-time power player’s humor and “dorkiness.”
For Spacey, creating a portrait
of Abramoff that is perceived by thosewhoknewhimas fair—and that does justice to the vision of director George Hickenlooper, who died suddenly in October at 47—maybeagreater rewardthan any nomination. “At least you want to get what
we got” at the premiere, he says, “which is the people who knew him go, ‘Yeah, that’s him.’ ” Even Barry Pepper, who plays
the money-hungry Scanlon in “Casino Jack,” says that, although Spacey and Abramoff are clearly very different people, he also can see a common denominator. “I mean, you don’t have an
Oscar in each hand for nothing,” Pepper says of his co-star during a telephone conversation. “I think it’s because of his passion, his deep passion. I think Jack was fueled by similar things. He had tremendous passion. I think it got derailed or misguided at some point along the line. But you see why Kevin was chosen to play him.He has that fire in him.”
jen.chaney@
wpost.com
Photo of Anna Deavere Smith by Mary Ellen Mark. JADE PAYETTE BY STEVE VACCARIELLO
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