Keeping his cards close to his chest

Kevin Spacey has won two Academy Awards and has an acting CV spanning 25 years. For all that, House of Cards may be the role of his career, says Ed Power. He meets the actor in London.

KEVIN SPACEY has travelled to the dark side with chilling regularity. In Seven, he was the calm, crazed killer who sent Brad Pitt Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box.

He won an Oscar for playing a criminal mastermind in disguise in The Usual Suspects, was a convincing Lex Luther in the otherwise disastrous Superman remake. He even played a twee riff on Dublin gangland figure Martin Cahill in Ordinary Decent Criminal.