He plays a sinister president in a fierce fight for re-election on “House of Cards,” but Kevin Spacey doesn’t want to mix talk of real-life presidential politics and his starring role on the Netflix series.
Spacey and the rest of the popular political drama’s cast swept into Washington on Monday for the show’s star-studded fourth season premiere at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
But the 56-year-old Academy Award winner repeatedly deflected questions from reporters on the red carpet asking him to weigh in on the 2016 White House race.
{mosads}“It’s sort of silly to compare the two,” Spacey told ITK, when asked whether the upcoming season of “House of Cards” or the real-life presidential election would prove more surprising. “They’re both a little bit unpredictable in that audiences have no idea where we’re gonna go and what we’re gonna do, and I think that’s part of the enjoyment that an audience has — they don’t really know.”
“And in the real world — I mean now it’s becoming a little bit more predictable, what’s going to happen,” he continued.
“At the same time,” Spacey added, “I happen to believe that we get what we deserve.”
Addressing the crush of journalists gathered along the rope line, Spacey said, “Edward R. Murrow warned us in 1964 that when news divisions decide that the news has to make money, and has to get ratings, it’s no longer news — it’s entertainment.”
“So if people are bothered by the fact that we seem to be having entertainment as news, it’s because the news divisions decided that money and ratings were more important than reporting,” Spacey said. He then told the members of the press gathered with a laugh, “Take that home, guys!”
Earlier that day, a portrait by British artist Jonathan Yeo of Spacey as Underwood was unveiled at the Portrait Gallery. In a case of art imitating life, Spacey appeared in character at the Monday night premiere to shoot a scene for a “House of Cards” promotional ad of President Frank Underwood attending his own official presidential portrait unveiling.
After the filming, Spacey, dropping the drawl he uses to play the South Carolina Democrat on the show, quipped to the VIP crowd, “I’m incredibly honored to be hung in the Smithsonian. Oh that’s right, I made that joke.”
“It’s really fun to blur fact and fiction to the point where no one f—–g knows what’s going on,” Spacey said.