Kevin Spacey Nixon: 'House of Cards' Star Talks Getting 'Revenge' Through Upcoming Movie [VIDEO]
Kevin Spacey recently admitted that he is getting "revenge" by playing President Richard Nixon in the upcoming film Elvis & Nixon.
Spacey will be seen as the notorious president when Elvis & Nixon is released in theaters this weekend, but the actor apparently tried out for the role years ago.
"Weirdly I had a kind of previous experience in attempting to play Richard Nixon when I tested for Frost/Nixon, which I will just point out is a movie I did not get," he told Showbiz411. "So this is my revenge film."
Frost/Nixon came out in 2008 and went on to big success at the Oscars. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director for Ron Howard and Best Actor for Frank Langella, who played Nixon in the film.
While Frost/Nixon told the story of Nixon's interviews with David Frost (Michael Sheen) after the Watergate scandal, Elvis & Nixon centers on the meeting of Elvis Presley (Michael Shannon) and Nixon in 1970. Their interaction was photographed and would ultimately become the most requested photo in the National Archives.
Spacey also spoke with Showbiz411 about whether the Nixon family had seen or will see the film.
"We've invited them all to a screening together in a tent but they haven't said yes. We're hoping," Spacey said.
Review for Elvis & Nixon have been rather mixed so far. Variety writes, "Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey hilariously reenact one of history's most surreal blind dates" and The New Republic states, "Elvis & Nixon is a perfectly pleasant minor little comedy that flies by quickly and passes the time easily, and I can't figure out if I should be disappointed by that fact, or relieved by it."
Some of the more negative reviews were from Village Voice and RogerEbert.com. Village Voice writes, "A product whose only clear goal is getting the two men in the room so we can giggle: at the president's awkwardness and grievance-airing, at the singer's polite bad manners, at the ways that the men connect, a little, by hating on the Beatles."
RogerEbert.com writes, "A product whose only clear goal is getting the two men in the room so we can giggle: at the president's awkwardness and grievance-airing, at the singer's polite bad manners, at the ways that the men connect, a little, by hating on the Beatles."
Elvis & Nixon will be released in theaters on Friday.
