He has also pulled off the most difficult trick of all: actor/directing. Just as great sportsmen often make rotten coaches, many star actors are too instinctively myopic to be able to assist anyone but themselves. But Spacey has acquired a reputation for a deft touch in his understanding of the innumerable ways in which different actors work.
One actor of my acquaintance met Spacey for a workshop at the NT a year or two ago and was impressed by the film star?s attitude to theatre. When asked about his relationship with the stage versus the screen, Spacey was adamant that the most successful (and satisfying) movies he?d ever made were the ones that had allowed sufficient time for rehearsal before shooting. If there had been no money available for such luxuries, then Spacey would call the actors beforehand to organise ad hoc readings before principal photography started.
His approachable presence, both on stage and off, has won him many new admirers, offering not only audiences but also fellow actors the opportunity of working with a performer of rare charisma. He has drive and dynamism and is, crucially, a team player. No blacked-out limousines and triple-filtered mineral water flown in from the Tuscan foothills for him. He is available to all. No wonder they?re queuing up to work with him.
The secret of his success is to combine star quality with an everyman attitude. A few years ago I was in Ronnie Scott?s to see the Woody Herman band and, after a while, I noticed that Spacey, a passionate jazz fan, was sitting quietly at an adjoining table. Eventually he had a discreet word with the band?s leader, Frank Tiberi, and shortly afterwards climbed on stage, took the mike and launched into a sublime rendering of Bobby Darin?s old standard, Beyond the Sea. Backed up by 20 or so of America?s best jazz musicians, it was a memorable few minutes.
At the end he sat back down again and resumed his drink. No fuss, no grandstanding ? if it hadn?t been for the venue, the band and the fact that he nailed the number with aplomb, it could have been any pub on a Saturday night. Spacey may be a genuine star who can fill a 1,000-seat auditorium on his name alone, but he?s also, as one jobbing actor described him to me the other day, ?one of us?.
And so, as Richard III himself would surely have testified, ?to the victor the spoils?. Spacey?s presence at the Old Vic has put it back at the pinnacle of British theatre. And with him now pledging his commitment until 2015, it looks like a glorious summer for this son of New York.
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