Kevin Spacey says the way Washington works — or doesn’t — “must be enormously frustrating” for President Obama.
{mosads}The Academy Award winner, who plays the conniving fictional President Frank Underwood on Netflix’s political thriller “House of Cards,” gives his take on politics in an interview with British GQ magazine.
In excerpts released Monday, when the interviewer mentions the words “ ‘Obama’ and ‘disappointment’ going together,” Spacey replies, “Have you Googled ‘Obama’ and ‘achievement?’ You can’t just look at one side of the story.”
“[Obama] did say he wished Washington was as ruthlessly pragmatic as on ‘House of Cards,” the 55-year-old entertainer says. “It must be enormously frustrating for Obama. There does seem to be in the U.S. now an ideology and an entrenchment that has stopped people doing what they are hired to do, which is govern rather than run for office the whole time.”
Spacey also discusses his surprising friendship with former President Clinton. Saying the pair “go way back,” Spacey — who does a spot-on impression of the 42nd president — credits the bromance to at least one aspect of their relationship: “The thing is this: I never waited to see which way the wind was going to blow. That is not true of everyone. He remembered that.”
The Spacey interview is featured in the March issue of British GQ, which hits newsstands on Thursday.