June 22, 2006
 
Spacey Purposely Cutting Back on Film Roles
 
By Betsy Pickle
Scripps Howard News Service
 

Kevin Spacey stars as Lex Luther in "Superman Returns." (SHNS photo courtesy Warner Brothers)

While director Bryan Singer had no trouble getting his "Usual Suspects" star, Kevin Spacey, to play Lex Luthor in "Superman Returns," Spacey says he has purposely been cutting back on his film roles.
 
"I made the decision at the end of '99, into 2000, that I was going to shift the focus of my career back toward theater," says Spacey, 46. "Even though I continued to work in film, my entire focus now and my full-time job is running the Old Vic theater (in London).
 
"After 'American Beauty,' I felt, well, this is about as good as it's gonna get, so I'm not gonna spend the next 10 years of my life trying to top myself. I'm gonna actually do something that I've always wanted to do, to start to play parts in theater that I've always wanted to play and ... try to now do things that are bigger than myself.
 
"For a long time, you're working as an actor to succeed ... in a singular career mode, and now I'm not interested in that at all anymore. I'm interested in something much different.
 
"The work I'm doing at the Old Vic is probably the most satisfying work that I do because it's about so many other people and it's about something so much bigger than just a singular career. ... I feel like I'm trying to take all the good fortune that's happened for me in film and help theater -- because movies don't need my help."
 
Contact Betsy Pickle of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.