'House of Cards' Season 4 Cast News: Kevin Spacey Says Netflix Show Helps People Understand Politics
With its unabashed focus on hushed-up government scandals, “House of Cards" is not exactly inviting people to admire the inner workings of Washington.
But Kevin Spacey, the 55-year-old lead on the Netflix series, has denied that the streamed show is turning watchers away from politics.
In an interview with BBC, Spacey was asked if his portrayal of the murderous, adulterous and blackmailing politician Frank Underwood was having a negative effect on voters.
If anything, the Academy Award-winning actor states that the series has enabled viewers to "understand politics."
When asked directly by interviewer Andrew Marr if the characters on the drama, which was based on a BBC program of the same name, put people off politics, Spacey said: "I think it's really making them understand politics in ways that they, perhaps, never had before."
"Yes, we want to be entertaining and yes, we want to feel like it's an accurate depiction of the things and the processes that people go through,” Spacey said, but the “choices that people make and the morals of it, I'll leave for others to judge, because I can't judge the characters I play -- I just have to play them."
Spacey, who is set to step down after his 11-year role as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London, is good friends with ex-President Bill Clinton, a man who has famously weathered a scandal or two during his administration.
When the actor was asked how Clinton reacted to the show, Spacey imitated the former President and said: "Ninety-nine percent of what they do on that show is real, and the 1 percent they got wrong? You could never get an education bill passed that fast."
In 2014, Clinton spoke about the veracity of political portrayals in entertainment on "Ellen," saying, as reported by NBC's Today: "The thing about 'Scandal' and 'House of Cards' that makes it fun to watch is that I can't imagine that either a President ["Cards" Frank Underwood] or the president's chief of staff on 'Scandal' could really get away with murder."
"I wish I had known that while I was in office," Clinton said.
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