Spacey tickled. His brother Randy Fowler has left a comment to this post
Isn't it amazing that one of the most famous actors in the world - a double Oscar winner, no less - has eluded the attentions of biographers? Until now, that is. Robin Tamblyn has just self-published a world first life story of Kevin Spacey, titled Looking Closer: Kevin Spacey - the First 50 Years. Well known among ardent Spacey fans as his former "creative stalker", Robin talked to Madame Arcati about Spacey, his brother Randy's contribution to the book - and her new-found asexuality.
Robin Tamblyn! Hello! You've just published the first biography of Kevin Spacey titled Looking Closer. Do you think he's read it yet?
Probably not – I sent a copy to his London address a few weeks ago but he’s been away filming in China so may not have received it yet.
How long did it take you to write and did you interview anyone close to Spacey?
Well, Looking Closer in its current form only took me about four months to put together, but I first had the idea for a Spacey biography nearly ten years ago now…when I started planning it originally, it was going to be very Oedipal and focussed on Kevin’s relationship with his father – I had just finished my Freudian-influenced study of sibling rivalry, The Romulus and Remus Complexes, at the time.
You can see my view of their relationship in [my novel] King of Hollywood where John Gibson is a more “malevolent” version of the Geoff Fowler that Kevin presents in interviews - a distant, strict but basically decent man. I did speak to a few people in Kevin’s life back in the early 00’s – though one person in particular turned out to have completely fabricated his account of his friendship with Kevin and Dana Brunetti, as I found out (to my cost) later…internet avatars are not always what they seem, eh Madame?
Anyway, after April 2004 I pretty much abandoned the Kevin/Geoff idea, for obvious reasons…I did briefly consider writing a tongue-in-cheek version of my encounters with Spacey and his associates called "No Dear, I’m Working" – which was the first thing he said to me when we first met back in the summer of 2004.
I focussed on my fiction for a while and then decided to take an extended break from writing to pursue other interests (evening classes, lots of overtime at work, etc.) in 2006. When my friend Jack Ewing was revamping Randy’s book Spacey’s Brother: Out of the Closet I suggested that he should write a biography of Kevin in tandem with it as even in 2009 there still wasn’t a published account of Spacey’s life. He wasn’t really interested so I asked if I could use some of the historical information relating to the Fowler family in a book of my own, as he and Randy had clearly put a lot of research into Randy’s background and it seemed a shame to waste it.
So I basically started from scratch again using this data and information from previously-published interviews with Spacey and his colleagues and associates. I asked a few of his friends with Twitter accounts whether they would like to contribute anything, but didn’t get any responses – and of course I asked Kevin himself, but likewise nada.
You have a notoriety among Spacey fans as his "stalker". Care to comment? For instance, why did you used to turn up at the Old Vic?
I think “notoriety among Spacey fans” is probably an exaggeration – that may be true on this particular blog but there is a world beyond, you know. I’m sure that 99% of Kevin’s fans have never heard of Robin Tamblyn (though it will be interesting to see if public response to Looking Closer bears this out). I hope the vast majority of people who type “Kevin Spacey biography” into a book search on Amazon will say “At last!” rather than “Ooh, but it’s written by that nasty Robin Tamblyn so I won’t be buying THAT.”
I remember reading one interview where Spacey said he has fans who write him “20 page letters every single day” saying that they are “destined” to be together, and they’re coming to find him to make it official…and then there’s that guy who follows him around trying to trace his hands. That to me is much more “stalkery” than anything I’ve ever done – my self-styled “creative stalker” tag seems to have been taken a bit more seriously by some people than I intended.
Kevin himself doesn’t appear to object to my visits to the Old Vic or occasional letters – he doesn’t exactly look unhappy in the Looking Closer cover picture now, does he? I haven’t been to London for a while (it’s much harder to get a cheap rail ticket these days), but I went to the Old Vic for the same reason as everyone else does – to see a great actor perform on a great stage.
Would you say the book is a form of catharsis?
Definitely – after four solid months of reading every interview with Kevin I could lay my hands on (strange how few he seems to have given prior to 1999, even after he got his first Oscar for The Usual Suspects), I’m pretty much “all Spacey’d out.” On a personal level, I think it has been good for me to get him “out of my system” in that way – and I’ll always be grateful to Kevin for both the literature and the friendships that came out of my “creative stalking…”
What's the book's central message about Spacey? We all know he's enigmatic and elusive, have you pinned down the nature of his allure?
Well, I’ve tended to take the view of the reporter who once noted while interviewing Kevin that the mystique of Spacey is one puzzle that should never be solved, as to do so “could only make him less interesting.” As I’ve said in my foreword, my aim was to take a peek behind the Spacey “mask” rather than rip it off entirely – a book written in such a short time could hardly claim to be definitive in any case. I approached Looking Closer as I would a university dissertation – deciding what I wanted to say and then finding evidence to back it up. I’ve tried to be as impartial as possible – for example, including comments from both people who worked with Kevin and found him a great guy, and those who worked with Kevin and found him an “egotistical wanker,” as one Ordinary Decent Criminal castmember put it.
You've self-published your bio, as you did your novels. Did you approach a traditional publisher first? Do you think people will take your book less seriously as a result?
I only tried the traditional route with King of Hollywood – I probably ended up spending more sending SAE’s and IRC’s to publishing houses than it eventually cost to go print-on-demand. I actually prefer POD as it allows me to keep creative control at all times – if I had had Looking Closer accepted by a traditional publisher it would probably have been out of print within a year (“But he’s 51 now!”).
Personally, when I’m buying a book from online sites I tend to look at the customer reviews rather than who the publisher is so I would hope that the same is true for Looking Closer. I’ve realised that a few minor typos crept into the original print copy (plus I spelt the name of That Park wrong) so I will need to do a revision at some point. If any Arcati-ites [Arcatistes] spot any other errors I’d be grateful if you would email them to me, ideally with your source (no “actually the whole book is a mistake” comments please!).
I’m hoping to release a revised version of Looking Closer including some pictures of Kevin’s parents in their youth and Kevin as a baby/child/young person at some future date too – hard to believe now but he once had a beautiful full (blond!) head of hair.
How much did it cost to publish?
£306.97 according to my Barclaycard statement – I got a 20% discount from iuniverse for being a repeat customer.
You went off Madame Arcati for a while, didn't you?
Not exactly – I haven’t visited your site for a couple of years, true, nothing personal in that – I just got a bit uneasy about using the Spacey connection to promote my books so much. I would prefer people to read King of Hollywood and coupling because they sound interesting or well-written in their own right rather than because certain events that take place in them may have been inspired by similar incidents in the life of a famous movie star (Velocity, which owes very little to Kevin, is actually the most popular of my first three books).
Looking Closer, of course, is explicitly “about” the man so no such problems there – though as I said earlier, I hope that it can be read apart from my public image and isn’t obviously a “Robin Tamblyn book.” If my name wasn’t on the cover I don’t think it would be readily identifiable as written by me.
Do you still want me to use the male pronoun for you? I interviewed you about four years ago. How would you say you've changed if at all in that time?
I’m happy to be referred to with the female pronoun…it was never my intention to “mislead” anyone into thinking I was actually a biological male by adopting the name “Robin,” any more than Ms Rowling was trying to trick her early readers by using J K rather than Joanne.
And finally Robin, what's your message to Spacey. I know he reads this site ...
Be honest, stay fair, and always be nice to your siblings – as Baz Luhrmann reminds us in The Big Kahuna, they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. I will, too…
Robin. Thank you! And good luck with the book.
To buy a copy of Looking Closer, click here. Sample chapter
Robin Tamblyn's website
Madame Arcati will be reviewing the biography
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