Great interview over at The Daily Beast by Kevin Sessums. He flew to London to chat with Casino Jack star Kevin Spacey, someone who actually followed him in the late 1970′s at New York’s famed Juilliard School.

After touching on the funny story of how Spacey was cast in his latest film as the result of a Facebook status update by the late George Hickenlooper, Sessums uncorks a humdinger of a question, offering first to go off-the-record. His query – “‘We gay men have always proudly claimed you as a member of our tribe, and yet you don’t proudly claim us back. Why?”

That in turn leads to a meandering back-and-forth. Here is part of Spacey’s reply:

I don’t live a lie. You have to understand that people who choose not to discuss their personal lives are not living a lie. That is a presumption that people jump to…

I am different than some people would like me to be. I just don’t buy into that the personal can be political. I just think that’s horseshit. No one’s personal life is in the public interest. It’s gossip, bottom line. End of story.

Sessums goes on to declare a somewhat moot truce. We believe the gay question by the reporter and Mississippi Sissy author was borderline but valid. At press time, 100% of Daily Beast reader comments were leaning the other way.