Jameson Cult Film Club: Kevin Spacey talks The Usual Suspects

Jameson Cult Film Club: Kevin Spacey talks The Usual Suspects

Jameson Cult Film Club: Kevin Spacey talks The Usual Suspects

1 comment 📅22 February 2011, 06:38

At a location kept secret until the last minute and with the promise of a Hollywood star in tow, the inaugural Jameson Cult Film Club event took place at the Dublin International Film Festival

The screening was dedicated to our fave suspense-thriller The Usual Suspects and as well as being treated to a re-run of Bryan Singer’s modern classic in a warehouse in Dublin’s Docklands district, we were also joined by Kevin Spacey limping onto stage in character for a Q&A after the movie.

Spacey regaled the audience with his experiences of the 26-day shoot in LA, including how they managed to eventually cast all the members of the team.

Benicio Del Toro’s audition and the voice he famously affected for the movie apparently had the cast in stitches during the line-up scene, much to director Singer’s disgust.

“We kept cracking up every time he did the voice,” Spacey explains. “So when we broke for lunch, Bryan had us all in his trailer and start screaming at us ‘Stop fucking laughing, are you trying to ruin my fucking movie?! Just stop fucking doing it, ok?!’ Of course, when we returned from lunch it was worse. Eventually in editing, Bryan thought to himself, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ and used what we had. In a sense it was better, because it created this sense of camaraderie among the suspects.”

Spacey also talked through his time working with David Fincher on Se7en and Sam Mendes on American Beauty, and Mendes’ total re-shoot of the first day’s word – the scene in the burger restaurant “because he hated everything about it.”

“I asked Sam what he thought of the dailies and he said, ‘Shit’,” Spacey reveals. “I laughed and said, ‘Really?’ but he was serious. I asked him what he hated about it and he said the only good thing was the script. He hated the lighting, the way it was shot, he hated my acting!”

Eventually, Mendes persuaded the studio to allow him to re-shoot that first day, with it eventually being shot as a drive-through scene, Spacey explains.

Spacey’s time on stage wouldn’t have been complete without a rendition of his finest Hollywood impersonations, including Christopher Walken’s audition for Han Solo (“The Millenn…ium Fal….con”), Jack Nicholson (“Where’s the Jameson when you need it?”), Al Pacino, as well as Bill Clinton (“I’m so glad to be here”).


1 Comment

  1. Luz
    21 April 2012, 08:27 Luz

    Hey thereTrying to join the cult film club, but I keep getting re-directed to Drinkaware.ie!Could you help and send me a link that works to the subs page?RegardsRobert Foster

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