This is just a personal preference, this doesn’t say that there aren’t a lot of wonderful performances, we’ve got one with Jamie Foxx this year, where there’s an actor lip-syncing. But I just go back to the days. I grew up watching Fred Astaire sing, and Gene Kelly sing, and James Cagney sing. It was only later that Audrey Hepburn didn’t sing, so you go back to those and there’s just something so exciting about knowing that person is doing it. And I knew it was a risk, but the most interesting and challenging things are right on the edge. And yeah, it was brassy, but so was Bobby.
Phil [Ramone] says there was a time between that period when we were at Universal, and by the time we got into pre-production where he said, “You stopped trying to do an impression of Bobby Darin.” Now, I don’t know when that was because I was inside of it, but he says, “There was a moment when your instincts as a performer kicked in, when you started using your own voice but it was Bobby, but it was a version of Bobby.” I’m awfully glad that happened. I don’t know when it happened, but I’m awfully glad that happened because if it didn’t come from me, then it just would have been hollow. And then why not use the original tracks? We chose not to because we wanted to do a lot of things musically. We could have never expanded into those dance sequences if we had been tied to those original tracks.
Having come this far, do you want critical acclaim? Would big box office numbers validate it?
It’s already validated because I faced the biggest critics I could have ever faced, Steve Blauner, Dodd Darin and Sandra Dee. After that, everything’s icing on the cake.
I made the movie because I wanted to make the movie, and I made the movie I wanted to make. If it’s successful, if it brings me success, if it brings all kinds of attention great, because you know why? Maybe that will turn the spotlight back onto Bobby Darin, and that’s the whole reason I did it. I’m going out on a concert tour because I want to absolutely reach the widest possible audience I can. I made the movie PG-13 so that I could reach the widest possible audience I can. He’s largely been forgotten and he was, without question, one of the greatest entertainers we ever had. Because he died young, and because he changed, because he didn’t always be the Bobby Darin they wanted him to be, I think that had a detrimental effect on his legacy.
Are you doing the concert tour as Bobby Darin?
No. It’s me, but it’s me singing Bobby and talking about Bobby and talking a little bit about the movie. But I will be dressed as Bobby. I’m pulling out some of the costumes from the movie.
How many cities are you doing?
Nine cities I think. We start in San Francisco, we play L.A., we play New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Atlantic City and we end in the Wayne Newton Theatre at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas.
Do you think if he had not been given a short life span he wouldn’t have pushed himself as hard as he did?
Probably not. It’s interesting to me. Here’s a guy who finds out he’s got this condition [and] he could have chosen an easier life. He pushed himself and did things that were detrimental to himself like smoking. He had a heart condition. I wanted to depict all that. I just thought it was remarkable, not [to] make a big comment out of it. I think to myself, “That was what.” When he heard that he wasn’t going to live to 15, I think that planted a chip on his shoulder on one side, which was a kind of fear that’s [driven]. But on the other side there was a bigger chip, which was, “Alright, you’re going to test me? Then I’m going to test you.”
PAGE 4: Kevin Spacey on the Structure of the Film
