Spacey from Space

By Suneal Kolluri
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

During one point in his film career, acclaimed actor Kevin
Spacey played a masturbating dad, in another film he was an
incredibly ugly grade school teacher and in “A Bug’s
Life,” he was a bug.

Spacey has yet to play a normal human being in any one of his
movies.

And in his latest film, “K-PAX,” opening Friday,
Spacey makes things even stranger. He plays a man who claims to be
an alien.

Spacey is Prot, a man who is submitted by authorities into a
mental institution because he claims to be from a distant planet
called K-PAX.

“He’s the perfect Prot … all the other actors
didn’t work as well. He’s just the perfect guy,”
said producer Lawrence Gordon. “He’s got the power;
he’s got the humor; he’s got the whole
package.”

When the mysterious Prot enters the psychiatric ward, the
doctors are astounded by his personality. His intellect is
apparently superior to that of many of the psychiatrists in the
hospital, and he begins to have a profound effect on the other
patients on the ward.

Prot is definitely a special individual.

“We live in a world where what people do determines what
they are,” Spacey said. “We don’t see a human
being; we see a sportscaster, an actress, a politician, a
journalist. Prot doesn’t do that … He just sees a person
and asks them logical questions. Sometimes the person who asks
logical questions is the one we call crazy.”

Jeff Bridges (“The Big Lebowski”) plays Dr. Mark
Powell, the psychiatrist attempting to treat this new strange
patient. While Dr. Powell’s diagnosis is initially multiple
personality disorder, both Prot’s convincing story and
mysterious personality make the psychiatrist question his original
assumption.

Throughout the movie, audiences will explore along with Dr.
Powell, in the hopes of determining whether or not Spacey’s
character is truly an alien.

“The ambiguity is what makes this work,” said
screenwriter Charles Leavitt.

The alien identity of Prot is definitely in question throughout
the film. But this movie will bring up many other important
quandaries that go beyond the mere plot.

Questions like “Are we alone in the universe?” or
“Is interstellar travel possible?” will certainly arise
with the release of “K-PAX.”

  Universal Pictures Jeff Bridges ("The
Big Lebowski") plays Dr. Mark Powell in the movie "K-PAX," opening
this Friday at theaters everywhere. While these are all very
pertinent questions, one question is far more important than all of
the others in this movie.

Is Spacey himself an alien?

This supposed earthling has won an Oscar for best actor, has
played the lead role in some of the most critically acclaimed films
of the past few years, has rode around on an electric scooter for a
while and has even turned down a pay increase because he believes
actors get paid too much.

Maybe on K-PAX, that stuff is normal but here on Earth,
it’s definitely out of the ordinary.

Many of the things Spacey has done may lead some to believe that
he is not from this world.

His abilities as an actor are considered by many to be almost
superhuman.

“He can play so many different types of characters,”
said director Iain Softley. “He can be humorous; he can be
making fun of you; he can be sincere; he can be completely naive.
He can be all of those.”

Is it possible that this uncanny acting ability is truly out of
this world? Many of Spacey’s co-stars in the new movie
“K-PAX” seem to be in awe of his talent.

“He doesn’t completely relax, he’s sort of in
his own posture,” said co-star Mary McCormack. “And
when the director says “˜action’ he’s just ready
… he’s one of the best.”

And needless to say, Spacey plays his alien role very
convincingly. Director Iain Softley believes Spacey works well as
the supposed space man.

“He has that chameleon-like quality,” Softley said.
“(Prot) might be an alien, he might not be.”

But extraordinary acting skills aren’t the only thing that
may lead people to believe in Spacey’s extraterrestrial
existence.

Judging by his on-screen personas, it is difficult not to wonder
about Spacey’s own abnormality. Even Spacey himself admits
that the characters he plays are a little bit off the wall.

“I like characters that aren’t perfect,” he
said. “I like them if they’re flawed in some
way.”

Yet that wackiness, Spacey reminds us, is very much a part of
being a human being.

“To me, I think flaws are what make us human,”
Spacey said.

Thus, Spacey is one of us. And his characters (with the notable
exception of the bug) have all been one of us as well. They all
just have something extraordinary about them that sets them apart
from from the rest of the world.

In Spacey’s case, his extraordinary facet is his ability
to perform.

“It’s up to you and the director to try and take the
script and try to interpret it,” Spacey said.
“That’s what I am ““ an interpreter of an
idea.”

Not only is he an extraordinary actor, he is a man with complex
feelings and intelligent ideas, who feels the same way as any
decent human being does about the recent tragedies that have shaken
the nation.

“I tried my whole life to do things I thought were
important.

“But I’ll tell you, I don’t want to do another
trivial thing for the rest of my life,” he said.
“That’s how it’s affected me personally and
almost everybody I know.”

Thus Spacey is just a normal human, with an incredible talent to
share with the rest of us.

But then again, he did pretend to masturbate in the shower for a
national audience.

Hmmm…