Kevin Spacey: evaluation

Transcript context

…High level. What was it like working with him again? In which ways do you think he helped guide you in the show to become the great show that it was? I give him a huge amount of the credit, and not just for what he established, but the fact that every director after stayed within that world. I think that’s why the series had a very consistent feeling to it. It was like watching a very long movie. The style, where the camera went, what it did, what it didn’t do, how we used this, how we used that, how we didn’t do this. There were things that he laid the foundation for that we managed to maintain pretty much until Beau Willimon left the show. They got rid of Fincher. And I was sort of the last man standing in terms of fighting against… Netflix had never had any creative control at all. We had complete creative control, but over time they started to get themselves involved because look, this is what happens to networks. They’d never made a television show before, ever. And then. They’d never made a television show before, ever. And then four years later, they were the best. And so then you’re going to get suggestions about casting, and about writing, and about music and scenes. And so there was a considerable amount of pushback that I had to do when they started to get involved in ways that I thought was affecting the quality of the show. What are those battles like? I heard that there was a battle with the execs, like you mentioned early on about your name not being on the billing for Seven. I heard that there’s battles about the ending of Seven, which was really… Well, it was pretty dark. So what’s that battle like? How often does that happen, and how do you win that battle? Because it feels like there’s a line where the networks or the execs are really afraid of crossing that line into this strange, uncomfortable place, and then great directors and great actors kind of flirt with that line.…

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