Nothing if not enigmatic and elusive, Spacey made his proverbial mark treading where everyone else really did fear to tread. Accepting his first Oscar for his portrayal of consummate con man Verbal Kint in "The Usual Suspects" he then went even further into darkness with his appearance as a killer in "Se7en." It was just four years later that Spacey turned his previous image completely around with his portrayal of a classic victim of a mid-life crisis, Lester Burnham, in "American Beauty." It was for this role that Spacey accepted his second Oscar.

Here, DVDFILE goes beyond the rumors, the fanfare, the coffee and the insults to give you as much of Kevin as he gave us in those few precious moments. Enjoy. We did.

Just how bad does a banana peel taste?

If it was just one banana peel then I could answer your question briefly but it was a lot more (banana peels) than that. It was always in the script that (my character) just ate all of produce, he just thought it was that good. So when we came to the set that day to shoot they had crafted fake peels and put a banana inside. And, no offense to anybody, it just looked really bad. To the naked eye it just looked like a gigantic yellow felt marker. It just kind of fell apart and so I just said why don't you guys just go to a store and get some ripe bananas and wash them and let's just do it. So, it was just an astounding potassium high.

You didn't get sick or anything did you?

No, but it really was an unbelievable potassium high.

How did you create this character, a man who claims to be from outer space but who might just be someone who is very confused?

I really had to approach the film almost on two separate tracks for the ambiguity to work. That is to come up with an absolutely complete, full story for (Spacey's character) Prot about why he is (on earth) and what his connection to Robert Porter (Spacey's other character) is.

I had to come up with an entirely complete, full backstory for Robert Porter. I had to be able to believe both. They had to be able to coexist. They couldn't conflict. But at the end of the day I don't think it matters whether he's from (K-PAX) or not. It's really about how he's affected all these people.

So you're perfectly fine with people believing that Prot is really from K-PAX or that Robert Porter had a breakdown?

I think it's kind of nice for an audience to make up its own mind.

When did you first get the script for K-PAX?

I first read the script three years ago and it turned into one of those embarrassing moments when I called my manager and said that I loved the part of Prot and my manager said that they didn't want me for that part. They wanted me to play the psychologist and the role of Prot was being played by another actor at that time.

Who was signed on to play Prot?

Will Smith, actually. But for whatever reason it never got made and three and a half years went by and they came back to me and asked if I'd be interested in playing Prot.

Have you had that experience with many projects?

The Shipping News was like that. I read it and fell in love with it seven years ago. First it was a John Travolta film. Then it was a Billy Bob Thorton film. But we tracked it and paid attention to it. Sometimes it's worth the wait. So, if you're just patient…

And you made the film.

It was an extraordinary experience working with Lasse Halstrom (who directed The Shipping News). And the women just kept getting better every week: It was Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore and Judi Dench.

That's an amazing cast. What do you do when you're working with actors who aren't as experienced as those three women?

You try very hard to puncture their little bubble and get in there with them. We all know actors who do their little spin and get paid a lot of money and that's all they do. But I believe it's an actor's job to serve the material and not themselves and I'll do anything to make that happen. Not doing that is selfish and there's already too much of that in the world. We don't need to go to the movies and pay to see that.

Your image has shifted dramatically from the time you were playing characters like Verbal Kint (The Usual Suspects) and Se7en. How hard has it been to convince people that you can play different types of roles than those?

I was playing very cynical, ironic characters at the time and it was very interesting to play those kinds of people at the time. But I got to the place where that was no longer interesting. It took years to shift the kinds of things I was doing. I just saw The Shipping News and there's not a cynical, ironic bone in my character's body. He's just trying to get through the day. You're always trying to prove yourself and prove that you can do something.

•••