We Need To Talk About Kevin

Actors have a limited shelf-life. From character actor to opening-marquee star, Kevin Spacey’s name has slid from understated newcomer to angry ham and now beyond. Once an acting mainstay, the suspension of disbelief that every actor depends upon has been discarded. Instead, using a dramatic shroud that’s previously served him well, Kevin the entertainer would like to disguise the truth for you anew.

In a self-posted clip (‘Let Me Be Frank’) as Frank Underwood from ’House of Cards’, Kevin addresses both the fourth wall and his accusers beyond it. Screwing every syllable in typically acerbic fashion, Kevin decides to present himself as a homely, not-yet deceased version of his former character. However in doing so, he unwittingly delivers a portrait of a monster by someone seemingly still consumed by the monstrous.

After a rapid descent in 2017 involving more than 30 accusations of sexual misconduct, Kevin Spacey disappeared. Unaware that, when carrying then 14 year old actor Anthony Rapp to bed, he would unwittingly sever his own artistic artery, Spacey’s choice has cost him dearly. When (by that most inverse of barometers) Hollywood wouldn’t cast him anymore, it was clear that his career was over. By his further miring ‘predatory sex’ with homosexuality, Kevin managed to scatter his ashes even more extensively. And yet, eschewing the conventional advice on how to handle a scandal… Disappear. Let it blow over. Make people forget. Spacey has now returned, as a man who has listened without hearing.

…Kevin the actor would like to start over again by disappearing inside Frank (Underwood) once more.

Formerly rent large across multiplex screens, Kevin is an actor who would always stare us down. From ‘Swimming With Sharks’ to being airbrushed out of ‘All The Money In The World’ his audience was always waiting for him to explode. Like De Niro before him, Kevin Spacey’s appeal was always his anger. The supposedly small man, the would-be victim, whose character would roar out of nowhere and lacerate his oppressors with desirable, smart-ass invective. This is the character Kevin played the most and the one that audiences queued the longest for. Yet half-way through his career, ‘American Beauty’s’ lead actor decided to change emotional gears. Gravitating away from showy volume to dry-baked eloquence, onscreen Kevin found a better home in his final monster – ’House of Cards’s’ Frank Underwood. Now so comfortable inside Frank, Kevin the actor would like to start over again by disappearing inside Frank once more. However, like the ex-boyfriend who promises to change only to further exhaust their charm, the same old Kevin is back onscreen again. Reheated this time by a clear, festering sense of injustice, Kevin wants back into your life – whether you want him or not. And like Frank Underwood, 2018’s Kevin Spacey doesn’t seem that hung up on contrition.

Returning to us like a relapsing drunk who’s only attended half of his therapy (Yes, he stayed away. Yes, he might have made you forget). In the gathering silence of plaudits long gone, Kevin has grown irritable at the inescapable void in his life. Unable to work and exorcised from his final films, his sense of injustice has now found itself a home in ‘Let Me Be Frank’. Delivering a clip thinly concealed as a retort, Kevin Spacey would like you to talk about him again. Kevin would like you to decide whether he’s been forgiven – should you have forgotten that forgiveness was ever due.

Framed inside a presidential address from beyond the celebrity grave, Kevin Spacey would like to interrupt both your memory and the very narrative of forgiveness…

Framed inside a presidential address from beyond the celebrity grave, Kevin Spacey would like to interrupt both your memory and the very narrative of forgiveness. Part imitation, part intimidation for a role already gone, ‘Let Me Be Frank’ is a meme waiting to be dined upon – and yet one so overt that even the angel of death would do well to pass over it. So blatant in its attempt to be relevant, this clip proves that Kevin Spacey is the talking point that nobody missed. Where the world has managed just fine without Kevin Spacey, it would seem that Kevin has not managed that fine without the world. 

Weeks before he walks into a Nantucket court, accused of the sexually assaulting an 18 year old in 2016, the timing of ‘Let Me Be Frank’ couldn’t be clearer even if its intoned content is not. You will be talking about Kevin Spacey. It’s likely to be unavoidable. However in this video, Kevin would like to have the first word. Together with his Christmas cake and apron.