Kevin Spacey has revealed his delight that audiences for his rebooted 'House of Cards' have been queueing up to watch episodes of the series on Netflix.
"I think in some ways maybe this proves that the way in which an audience has been able to find the series, that we have learned the lesson the music industry didn’t learn," Spacey told an international group of journalists.
"Give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in at a reasonable price and they will buy it and they won’t steal it."
Spacey with Robin Wright in the new 'House of Cards'
Spacey plays the corruptible politician Francis Underwood, based on the unforgettable Francis Urquhart of the original BBC series, in the series, which has had record audiences on Netflix, and is now in production of its second season.
Another benefit for him of going down this unconventional route - ie producing the series from day one with Netflix, rather than sending it through the traditional pilot system for new shows in the US - was having to avoid showing off all the show's tricks in one go.
"One could look at a pilot as a kind of audition and that the writers, particularly, and Beau Willimon our head writer specifically, would have had to have written an hour or a two hour episode that establishes all of the characters and sort of creates kind of arbitrary, artificial cliff hangers, et cetera," says Spacey.
Kevin Spacey is delighted audiences have found the show without it having to go through the US pilot system
"And because Netflix has such faith in (director) David Fincher (Spacey's director on 'Seven') and in myself and in the concept of the series, being able to start knowing that we were going to tell this story and tell it over these initial 26 episodes, was a really remarkable way to begin. And it allowed us to just get on with telling the story."
While Spacey obviously has his own ideas about where his character should go next, he is quick to pay tribute to the much-loved original series...
"I watched the original series when it was initially on in the United States. You know, it was a program that my mother particularly admired. I thought it was terrifically well done; I thought that Ian Richardson was absolutely brilliant in the role.
"It was David who originally proposed the idea that the rights for the series were available and was something that we thought could translate into an American series. So we both went and looked at it and then we regrouped and decided that we both thought that it could in fact translate very well and that the role had all kinds of wonderful possibilities to it. But really it was about the notion of having a chance to work – to reunite
with David."
The Netflix original series House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright and Kate Mara is available for members to watch instantly on Netflix.