Kevin Spacey Opens Up About Playing Abramoff In 'Casino Jack'

Kevin Spacey had no reservations playing the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff in his new movie Casino Jack.

"It was an amazing part, very larger than life," Spacey said to USA Today. The actor added that he was pleased by the recognition he's already garnered for his role, including a Golden Globe nomination for best actor. "For me, it's fantastic. It's a wonderful surprise. I'm very honored by this because it's really the first central role I've done in about seven years."

Spacey, who guards his privacy fiercely, talked about his right to live his life out of the public eye. To do so "really doesn't take that much effort, he said. "[People] go to the restaurants where the paparazzi are. I don't go to those restaurants. I do something I feel passionate about or something I'm supporting, so I don't show up at every opening. I'm an actor and occasionally a director. But first, I'm a human being. If you're consistent, eventually you get boring."

But the two-time Oscar winner said that privacy comes with one big exception. "I don't believe there's anything about a person's personal life that's in the public interest, unless they are, you know, abusing funds, doing something that's so remarkably hypocritical that it is in the public interest that it be exposed."

Spacey will also appear in the comedy Horrible Bosses, out next year. —ISHITA SINGH