Interview of the week: Kevin Spacey

NEW YORK, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey insists that his show-stopping performance at a recent John Lennon tribute concert in New York is not a sign that he plans to pursue a professional singing career.

Although the 42-year-old star of "K-Pax," "American Beauty" and "The Usual Suspects" admitted he harbors a great love of singing and hopes to star in a musical someday, Spacey said he does not want to follow in the footsteps of fellow thespians-turned-rock-stars Russell Crowe, Kevin Bacon and Keanu Reeves, all of whom have toured with their bands while maintaining their acting careers.

"In the right context, I certainly will sing again," Spacey confided.

"But, I think to sort of go and do an album is a bit disingenuous. In the first place, musicians would go: 'Oh, please, what he's got is not enough? Now, he's got to do this?' If I was going to really say: 'You know what? I'm going to give up acting and I'm going to go on the road and I'm gonna get a band and I'm going to record and I'm going to take this seriously,' well, then you're changing your life and saying, 'I'm going to be a musician,'" he said.

"I've sung my whole life," continued the New Jersey native. "I did musicals when I was a kid, more than plays, and over the years I've always been trying to find one to do, but it's never quite revealed itself yet.

"In terms of singing recently, I've done a couple of benefits for (victims of the World Trade Center attacks). ... It just seemed appropriate. I wanted to do something, in particular, at the John Lennon event, that would be surprising and uplifting and I needed to do it."

Asked if he was pleased with the audience's reaction to his rendition of the song "Mind Games," the actor replied: "It was probably the biggest roar I ever heard. ... The reaction (the song) got and that whole evening got was really more than any of us could have hoped for. It was a lot of fun and, I suspect, in the right context, I'll be singing for my supper every now and then. ... I almost felt like I was doing it for everybody. I almost felt like everybody wanted to get up there and do what I was doing at that moment, like let's all be rock stars, let's get up and sing. It was an extraordinary moment ... that gave me confidence to get through the song."

Spacey revealed that because he was somewhat unfamiliar with the song, he depended on cue cards to remind him of the words.

"I was trying as subtly as I could to sort of follow the lyrics where the lyrics were and not make it look like I was doing that," he said.

One place Spacey seems to have no problem remembering his lines is on the sets of his movies. The well-respected actor can be seen as a sensitive, lovable alien in the flick "K-Pax" in theaters now and will star as a small-town reporter in "The Shipping News," a drama based on the beloved novel of the same name, coming out this Christmas.

Inundated by job offers since he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role of Verbal Kent in 1995's "The Usual Suspects," Spacey said he has been choosing nice-guy parts in movies such as "American Beauty," "Pay It Forward," "K-Pax" and "The Shipping News" because they are "unlike a lot of roles that I've played in film before."

He said he was eager to take his career "in a direction away from the manipulative and villainous characters that I first got known for."

Spacey made a name for himself in the early 1990s by playing sleazy cops, crooks and killers in dramas like "Seven," "L.A. Confidential," "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and "The Usual Suspects." He has since played a suburban husband and dad having a mid-life crisis, an inspiring teacher, an alien and a reporter, as well as an animated insect in "A Bug's Life."