JL: My first guest is an Oscar winning actor, who stars in one of the best films of the year, L.A. Confidential. This is a terrific movie if you had not seen it before, very cool, very sexy movie. Please welcome my buddy, Kevin Spacey!
[Kevin walks out, greets the audience and shakes hands with Jay]
KS: (re: cheers) -- very nice.
JL: Have a seat.
KS: Thank you.
JL: One of the busiest men around. Now what - what you just did, what were you just shooting? I read something - was it with Sean Penn...
KS: Yes, I just wrapped on Monday a film version of a play by David Rabe called Hurlyburly.
JL: Now you did - now I know this becayse didn't you do something like years ago --
KS: Yeah, I was, actually, eleven years ago I was the understudy on Broadway to the part I'm playing in the film now, so there's hope!
[audience applauds]
JL: Oh that's great, yeah, yeah... Well see that, see that's why I think you're a cool actor. I like that, "just wrapped, on Monday."
KS: yeah, "on Monday" --
JL: Yeah, I like that, just kinda "wrapped" --
KS: yeah, "and now I'm here with Jay."
JL: Okay, now you're working with Sean. Now, Sean seems very intense and I know you had a love scene with Robin, that's his wife. It seems to me now, I see him kind of over there going, "hey, get away from my wife." I mean, is he like --
KS: No, actually, he likes to watch. It's a strange thing. Yeah, he was kind of there with cameras and a notepad. I don't know what it means. [talks straight to the camera] I'm kidding, Sean, I'm just, you know, I'm kidding.
JL: But he seems like, he's been here, actually a very nice guy, but he always seems so intense. Like, when you do a film with him, I know you're an intense actor as well, but he just seems like, like the broody kind of guy. Is he that way?
KS: Well, you know, I have to say that for a guy that who has a reputation for some people as a tough guy, he turns out to be one of the most generous people I've ever worked with in my life. He's the real deal. He's a great man.
JL: I mean, it is fun? Is he like a prankster? 'Cos he seems like he'd be very serious.
KS: You know what, he's a bit of a prankster. And just the other day we were sitting in the make-up trailer and there was about four people in the make-up department and Sean's wife Robin and myself. Sean came in to the trailer to get done up and we were all there talking, chatting for about ten minutes and then there was a knock on the door. [knocks on Jay's table] And, open the door and there's a police officer standing there in uniform. And he says, "Is Mr Sean Penn in this room?" And we all went, "Eh - yeah, he's, he's over there." And he said, "Mr Penn, would you come outside, please." And Sean said, "Why?" He says, "We have a warrant for your arrest." He says, "What's it for?" He says, "Drunken driving." He says, "Well, ah, I'm not coming outside." He says, "You're not coming outside?" He says, "No, I'm not coming outside, you talk to the producer." He goes, "I'm not gonna talk to the producer, you come out right now, Mr Penn." And now the room is very tense, 'cause we're all thinking, "Oh yeah, it's gonna" -- here we are, another one of us is going to jail and I just, I can't stand it. I can't stand it anymore. So the police man walks into the make-up trailer, he walks right past Robin, he gives her a kiss on the lips and says, "Hi, Rob, how you doing?" So it turns out he's a friend of their's and ah, Sean does this a lot.
(re: little laughter) That kinda went nowhere, didn't it?
JL: -- no, no.
KS: [talking to the audience] It was like a story that kinda went and then it died, didn't it? I'm not making that up.
JL: [laughing] No, no, see, people got into it, you were so convincing - and you know what I liked? You know my favorite part of the story?
KS: What?
JL: You see, I could tell you're a stage actor. "There was a knock at the door." And then the knock. As if people were going, "What would that be like? Oh, there it is!"
KS: [laughing] Well, that's because sometimes the show is a little like radio.
JL: Suddenly, a *knock*. How the impressions? Anybody new? You're doing - you do great -- People don't know this about you. When I saw you host Saturday Night Live, boy, you knocked me out. You just did everybody so well.
KS: Thank you.
JL: What was your first? What was sort of the one --
KS: I think the first impression I did was Jimmy Stewart. And, you know, I just recently, I was watching the film Larry Flynt and I realized that Woody Harrelson is doing Jimmy Stewart in that film. [falls into a JS impression] "Well, you, you can't quit. I'm, I'm your favorite client, I'm rich, I'm always in trouble and I'm the most fun!" [audience cheers loudly] Right? I'm not making that up.
JL: Do you do - can you do women at all? Do you ever do women or is it all just --
KS: Jay, you know, in the current climat that's probably not a good question to ask me.
JL: Really? I guess that's probably not, people get so --
KS: No, I, I one time did Katherine Hepburn. Yeah, but we kept it quiet and everything's fine.
JL: So who is your favorite to do?
KS: Probably, you know, probably Johnny Carson -- is my favorite.
JL: Johnny is unbelievable.
KS: Johnny is fun. Because you know, he used to sit here. And nobody cared then. I tell you, it's weird, isn't it weird? Yeah, see, they forget, how quickly they forget.
JL: No, they don't no, nobody forgets. Let's talk about L.A. Confidential now.
KS: OK.
JL: You know, I'm sort of annoyed at the people who advertise this movie. Because this, I think, is one of the best movies of the year, and I see these ads and it's not clear what happens. I thought it was very sexy, very entertaining, cool, like a cool movie.
KS: Yeah, we're hoping if it does in fact get nominated for some of the Academy Awards this year, that it'll have a chance to find an audience again, they'll put it in more theatres and maybe shift the campaign a little.
JL: Cause, Kim, Kim Basinger, won, of course, she won Best Actress.
KS: She won the Best Actress, she won a Golden Globe just last week, and we're all real proud of her, and she does marvellous work in the film, and --
JL: Do you enjoy watching her work? I imagine that's fun.
KS: I do, very mu -- Although I didn't really, um, I didn't get to work with her -- (re: audience's cheers) You guys are on the loose tonight, you know that? I didn't get to work with her, actually I only got to watch her, sort of the same way Sean watched me, I watched her in a scene with Russell Crowe.
JL: During a love scene.
KS: Yeah, during a love scene.
JL: Well, that must be fun.
KS: Oh sure, I mean, c'mon, it's not a bad day at work.
JL: No no, um, just going, "I gotta get on and watch Kim".
KS: That's right.
JL: Well, we have a clip here, let's watch a clip from L.A. Confidential.
KS: OK.
JL: Let's take a look.
[we see a clip from LAC, in which Jack Vincennes is first introduced to us while dancing with Karen at a party]
KS: Just sex, sex, sex, that's all the show is.
JL: That's all it is.
KS: All it is.
JL: That's what sells. But it's great, cause folks, if you had not seen it, cause every week it seems to, it always kind of hangs in, there's so many big movies out like Titanic.
KS: Yeah. It has consistently made, it hasn't dropped off at all, so there's obviously great interest in the film.
JL: No, it's great, it's really terrific.
KS: So, I hope people will go out and see it.
JL: Now here's your thing, second question. Now, second Oscar, would that mean as much as the first one or are you kind of like "Oh, I got" --
KS: Oh, oh no no no. Oh no no no no. I think that, that -- Something like that, is something you probably never, should never get used to. If you do, you should go open shoe store somewhere, in somewhere else... which I'm planning on doing after this show tonight.
JL: No no, cause you won for Usual Suspects, and I thought it was great, your mom, they showed your mom in the audience and how she would drive you to the acting lessons, I mean, it was just a great, great story. So, so listen, I hope, I certainly hope you get nominated on this.
KS: Thank you.
JL: It's a wondeful piece of work. Folks, go see L.A. Confidential. Just a great, great film. Thank you, Kevin. Kevin Spacey! Be right back with Brett Farb [sp?]...