The Deal with Kevin Spacey: Part 1
So my wonderful loving husband decided to throw me a 30th birthday party earlier this year. As a side note, I was 20 when I started this blog. I now have a 10 year old blog. Wow.
Anyway, my birthday party was "Kevin Spacey themed". And booooy was it. It was amazing, and I've decided I want the internet to share in it. But first I think that the internet needs to know about the extent of my love for Kevin. If you know me well, you already know of my feelings on the Kevin subject. But I doubt you know the entire history. So I'm going to document my Kevin timeline, before my old brain forgets everything.
It started when I was about 14 years old. This would be somewhere in 1996. My cousin Cory would stay overnight with us for a week or so during the summers. He lived in Buffalo, so I didn't see him too often, but we always got along when we did hang out. That particular summer, we were fond of staying up until 2 or 3 am and talking about movies. Movies have always been my favorite thing to talk about, regardless, and we had similar tastes.
One night, we were sitting up late in my family's den, and he decided to tell me the entire plot of The Usual Suspects. At that point in my life, I didn't think to shout "SPOILERS!". I just listened patiently, and then decided that I needed to see this movie.
So I rented The Usual Suspects from a video store (or the library), and I laid on my parents' bed to watch it by myself. Well, I fell in love. With the movie, and with Kevin. I've seen the movie about 15 times now, and it's still my favorite of all time. And keep in mind, this was AFTER I'd known the entire plot. That's how good the movie is. I watched Se7en shortly afterward, and that just cemented everything amazing about Kevin Spacey in my mind, and Se7en as my 2nd favorite film of all time. So I decided at that point that I would need to watch anything else I could find.
Keep in mind, this was 1996. I couldn't drive, and I didn't have the internet yet. I tried to watch Consenting Adults with my parents at one point, but they shooed me away because of the subject matter. But I COULD get rides to video stores. So I rented Glengarry Glen Ross and Swimming with Sharks, and Cory brought The Ref over for me to watch. (I went nuts for The Ref.) While I was waiting to see more movies, I memorized the entire backseat monologue from Se7en. I still know most of it today.
In the next few years, I made sure to see A Time to Kill, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and the Negotiator. A guy I liked in high school told me that Kevin would be hosting SNL. I made sure to tape the episode, which was smart of me, because I ended up watching it over and over again. (I still think, semi-objectively, it's one of the best episodes.) I forced my 9 year old brother to go see A Bug's Life with me in the theater, and it was the first and only movie the 2 of us have seen in a theater together to this day. I even rented Albino Alligator, because Kevin directed it. I wanted the audio book of Nobody's Fool, because he was the reader, but I couldn't find it in my local library.
In high school, everyone knew of my obsession. I didn't care if they thought it was odd that a 16 year old girl would have a crush on a 39 year old man instead of someone like JTT. I've always liked who I've liked, and I've never been ashamed to talk about it. So it was with no reservations that I made this in art class:
Somewhere during this time, my family bought our first computer, complete with brand spanking new internet. AOL, to be exact. So I was able to read forums and other sites that would give me info on Kevin's career. I found pictures of him, and learned that his dog's name was Legacy. I used that word as my first email password ever. Kevin Spacey's dog's name. Seriously. I also learned that he would be doing The Iceman Cometh on Broadway. Tickets were very expensive due to the length of the show, and I had never been to NYC in my life. But I wanted to go sooooo badly. I finally gave up on that dream after my parents convinced me they would never take me to the city just to feed my obsession.
I also found an address for fan mail online. Since this was before American Beauty was released, he wasn't super crazy popular. I mean, he'd won an Oscar for The Usual Suspects, but the internet wasn't the many headed beast it is today, and people couldn't glom onto celebrities like they can now. So I decided to send him a letter. I still have my rough draft. (All the scribbles were cleaned up before I sent him a copy. I've always been a stickler with that stuff):
And, low and behold, one day in early 1999 I received a big brown envelope in the mail, with a stamp saying it was from Los Angeles. Inside was a signed copy of a picture from L.A. Confidential:
I hadn't seen that movie yet, because back in those days, it took forever for a movie to come out onto video after it had been in a movie theater. But seeing the signed photo made me unbelievably happy. I was even happier after I smudged a bit of the "y" and saw that it was permanent marker, and not a photocopy. I still don't know if he signed it himself, or if one of his assistants did it, but it was still amazing to receive.
After that, things went downhill a little bit. I finally saw L.A. Confidential, and it made my list as my 3rd favorite movie of all time. However, that wasn't because of Kevin. He did a great job in the movie, but my eyes wandered to a newcomer (at least to my eyes), Russell Crowe. Russell's performance was brilliantly understated, while still emotional. And I've come to learn that I love those kinds of performances best.
So I was starting to get on a little bit of a Russell Crowe kick, when I saw American Beauty. Everyone always says to me, "You must've loved Kevin Spacey in American Beauty." Don't get me wrong, he was amazing as always in it, and it's a great film. But...I was a little too jealous of Mena Suvari, and then he got popular. Too popular. He started doing movies where he was playing the good guy all of a sudden. It got to be a little too wholesome for me.
But I still thought about trying to get into Julliard for acting, because he went there. (This was my "delusions of grandeur" phase.) I finally went away to a more appropriate college, and continued my Russell Crowe obsession when Gladiator came out. Then I fell for Hugh Jackman in X-Men, and so on. I still kept up with Kevin's career, though. I made my roommates go see every one of his movies that was released from 2000-2003. But it wasn't the same. EVERYONE knew who he was now, so that made everything less exciting.
But then, last year, Horrible Bosses came out. It was Kevin, old school. He was bitingly sarcastic, psychopathic, and it was everything I'd loved about his earlier films. So it was a great time for Mike to throw me the aforementioned "Kevin Spacey party". He really brought back my teenage years, as you shall see in a blog post to come.
Anyway, my birthday party was "Kevin Spacey themed". And booooy was it. It was amazing, and I've decided I want the internet to share in it. But first I think that the internet needs to know about the extent of my love for Kevin. If you know me well, you already know of my feelings on the Kevin subject. But I doubt you know the entire history. So I'm going to document my Kevin timeline, before my old brain forgets everything.
It started when I was about 14 years old. This would be somewhere in 1996. My cousin Cory would stay overnight with us for a week or so during the summers. He lived in Buffalo, so I didn't see him too often, but we always got along when we did hang out. That particular summer, we were fond of staying up until 2 or 3 am and talking about movies. Movies have always been my favorite thing to talk about, regardless, and we had similar tastes.
One night, we were sitting up late in my family's den, and he decided to tell me the entire plot of The Usual Suspects. At that point in my life, I didn't think to shout "SPOILERS!". I just listened patiently, and then decided that I needed to see this movie.
So I rented The Usual Suspects from a video store (or the library), and I laid on my parents' bed to watch it by myself. Well, I fell in love. With the movie, and with Kevin. I've seen the movie about 15 times now, and it's still my favorite of all time. And keep in mind, this was AFTER I'd known the entire plot. That's how good the movie is. I watched Se7en shortly afterward, and that just cemented everything amazing about Kevin Spacey in my mind, and Se7en as my 2nd favorite film of all time. So I decided at that point that I would need to watch anything else I could find.
Keep in mind, this was 1996. I couldn't drive, and I didn't have the internet yet. I tried to watch Consenting Adults with my parents at one point, but they shooed me away because of the subject matter. But I COULD get rides to video stores. So I rented Glengarry Glen Ross and Swimming with Sharks, and Cory brought The Ref over for me to watch. (I went nuts for The Ref.) While I was waiting to see more movies, I memorized the entire backseat monologue from Se7en. I still know most of it today.
In the next few years, I made sure to see A Time to Kill, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and the Negotiator. A guy I liked in high school told me that Kevin would be hosting SNL. I made sure to tape the episode, which was smart of me, because I ended up watching it over and over again. (I still think, semi-objectively, it's one of the best episodes.) I forced my 9 year old brother to go see A Bug's Life with me in the theater, and it was the first and only movie the 2 of us have seen in a theater together to this day. I even rented Albino Alligator, because Kevin directed it. I wanted the audio book of Nobody's Fool, because he was the reader, but I couldn't find it in my local library.
In high school, everyone knew of my obsession. I didn't care if they thought it was odd that a 16 year old girl would have a crush on a 39 year old man instead of someone like JTT. I've always liked who I've liked, and I've never been ashamed to talk about it. So it was with no reservations that I made this in art class:
 |
| I went to a small school, aka less bullies. |
Somewhere during this time, my family bought our first computer, complete with brand spanking new internet. AOL, to be exact. So I was able to read forums and other sites that would give me info on Kevin's career. I found pictures of him, and learned that his dog's name was Legacy. I used that word as my first email password ever. Kevin Spacey's dog's name. Seriously. I also learned that he would be doing The Iceman Cometh on Broadway. Tickets were very expensive due to the length of the show, and I had never been to NYC in my life. But I wanted to go sooooo badly. I finally gave up on that dream after my parents convinced me they would never take me to the city just to feed my obsession.
I also found an address for fan mail online. Since this was before American Beauty was released, he wasn't super crazy popular. I mean, he'd won an Oscar for The Usual Suspects, but the internet wasn't the many headed beast it is today, and people couldn't glom onto celebrities like they can now. So I decided to send him a letter. I still have my rough draft. (All the scribbles were cleaned up before I sent him a copy. I've always been a stickler with that stuff):
I hadn't seen that movie yet, because back in those days, it took forever for a movie to come out onto video after it had been in a movie theater. But seeing the signed photo made me unbelievably happy. I was even happier after I smudged a bit of the "y" and saw that it was permanent marker, and not a photocopy. I still don't know if he signed it himself, or if one of his assistants did it, but it was still amazing to receive.
After that, things went downhill a little bit. I finally saw L.A. Confidential, and it made my list as my 3rd favorite movie of all time. However, that wasn't because of Kevin. He did a great job in the movie, but my eyes wandered to a newcomer (at least to my eyes), Russell Crowe. Russell's performance was brilliantly understated, while still emotional. And I've come to learn that I love those kinds of performances best.
So I was starting to get on a little bit of a Russell Crowe kick, when I saw American Beauty. Everyone always says to me, "You must've loved Kevin Spacey in American Beauty." Don't get me wrong, he was amazing as always in it, and it's a great film. But...I was a little too jealous of Mena Suvari, and then he got popular. Too popular. He started doing movies where he was playing the good guy all of a sudden. It got to be a little too wholesome for me.
But I still thought about trying to get into Julliard for acting, because he went there. (This was my "delusions of grandeur" phase.) I finally went away to a more appropriate college, and continued my Russell Crowe obsession when Gladiator came out. Then I fell for Hugh Jackman in X-Men, and so on. I still kept up with Kevin's career, though. I made my roommates go see every one of his movies that was released from 2000-2003. But it wasn't the same. EVERYONE knew who he was now, so that made everything less exciting.
But then, last year, Horrible Bosses came out. It was Kevin, old school. He was bitingly sarcastic, psychopathic, and it was everything I'd loved about his earlier films. So it was a great time for Mike to throw me the aforementioned "Kevin Spacey party". He really brought back my teenage years, as you shall see in a blog post to come.
TO BE CONTINUED
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