Gene Fallaize, the director of Kevin Spacey’s newest film, Control, says he didn’t regret his casting decisions even as Spacey was facing a life sentence. Spacey was recently cleared of all charges following a four-week trial, but Fallaize has defended his decision to cast the actor, calling it a “genius casting.” He also admitted that the possibility of Kevin Spacey’s arrest wasn’t really discussed on the set of Control. Still, now that Spacey’s trial is over, he’s looking forward to possibly releasing Control in the US and UK markets.
Control centers around British Home Secretary Stella Simmons (Lauren Metcalfe), who’s secretly involved in an affair with the Prime Minister (Mark Hampton). One night as she’s driving home, a mysterious hacker takes control of her self-driving car, leading Stella on an unwilling rampage through London. Kevin Spacey stars as The Voice, an entirely vocal role as a man hellbent on revenge against Stella. Gene Fallaize claimed Kevin Spacey’s lines for his role were recorded in one day last December, not long after he was first charged with 12 counts of sexual assault.
Gene Fallaize Describes Kevin Spacey as ‘A Nice Guy’ Working On ‘Control’
When asked if Kevin Spacey’s trial negatively affected his decision to cast the actor, Control writer, and director Gene Fallaize said he “had no regrets” about the casting and “would do it all over again”. According to Variety, Fallaize admitted that he and Spacey didn’t discuss the trial much because he didn’t want it to be a “weird thing with us” and “We were there in a professional capacity to work with an actor, and so we didnโt bring anything like that up.”
“Kevin was really open between takes. We would talk, we were just having a general discussion… He was really good to talk to. He is naturally quiet and comes across as quite shy. He seemed fine. I mean, I didnโt know Kevin before all of this so I canโt say what he was like in comparison to what he was like before. But you know, he just seemed like a nice guy.”
Regarding the film itself, Fallaize stated that they were able to sell it to distributors in Germany, Russia, and the Middle East before Spacey’s trial had concluded; now that it’s over, there’s talk of Control hitting US and UK markets as well. During production, the crew of Control was reportedly aware of the financial risk they were taking with the film. Still, Fallaize claimed that they “had sales offers from the very beginning,” despite the possibility of Kevin Spacey facing life in prison.
“We did it with as low a budget as we could to minimize any potential risk. We knew that the film would sell because there is a fan base there so it was always going to sell… It was really a case of how much of a risk and how much it could lose. So it was a case of not driving the budget too high [and] keeping things manageable just in case, and hoping for the best.”
Moving forward, Gene Fallaize has expressed high hopes for the success of Control and Kevin Spacey’s career in general. More information on the potential domestic release of Control will likely be made available soon.
