Rumours that Kevin Spacey is quitting the movies are greatly exaggerated, but following the launch of his latest film about Bobby Darin, he will be concentrating on running the Old Vic, he tells Steve Pratt.

Kevin Spacey was on a tight schedule. He had to get back to London for a meeting with potential sponsors at London's Old Vic Theatre where the Oscar-winning American is installed as artistic director.

Fund-raising isn't the most exciting thing in the world but it's necessary, he points out. "You take on a role and you have to take over every aspect of what that really asks you to do."

Just as running a theatre isn't just a matter of programming, so directing a movie doesn't end when the completed film is handed over to the distributors - especially when the picture in question is the fulfilment of a long-held dream. Spacey is both star and director of this biopic about singer Bobby Darin, one of the biggest musical names in the 1950s and 1960s, but largely forgotten today.

All of which accounts for his flying visit to Nuneaton in the Midlands to talk to a gathering of regional journalists about Beyond The Sea. There can't be many Academy Award winners who'd make a journey like that, but Spacey is hardly your average Hollywood actor. For a start, he's equally at home on stage and screen. England isn't so much his second home as his first since taking over the reins at the Old Vic earlier this year.

"I've been coming here since I was a kid and it's an easy transition to make to live here," he says. "I like coming to new cultures. Even though we speak the same language, I'm not fooled by that. Running the Old Vic means a great deal to me. The fact that both these things are happening in the same year is even better."

He recalls coming on holiday to London as a child and staying at a bed-and-breakfast near the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. "My mother told me it was the best acting school in the world," he says. "I was completely captivated by the actors and actresses mingling, smoking cigarettes outside. I was only about eight years old, but I knew straight away that I wanted to be one of them."

His arrival in London has not been without incident. It hasn't been a walk in the park - it was one of those that put him in the headlines earlier this year with claims that he'd been mugged in a London park in the early hours of the morning. A few hours later he withdrew the allegations, saying he'd tripped over his dog while chasing a youth who'd conned him out of his mobile.

Embarrassingly, this happened days before the launch of his first season at the Old Vic. Then reviewers were less than kind about the first production, which Spacey directed. He takes such critical reaction in his stride, saying you can't walk into a job of directing or being artistic director without expecting comments. Besides, despite the drubbing, the box office is booming. "The objective to get the theatre buzzing again is working quite well," he says.

He must be equally apprehensive about the reception Beyond The Sea will receive when the film opens next week. He not only plays Bobby Darin but also sings as Bobby Darin. As anyone who saw him perform on Parkinson the other week will know, he's a pretty mean crooner more than capable of taking the mike in front of a big band.

He directed his first film, Albino Alligator, eight years ago and it's taken him that long to get the Darin biopic in front of the cameras. Part of the problem was getting hold of the rights to the story. The long wait enabled him to get the script and the music right.

Even then, getting the movie financed wasn't easy. "It was tough in America because the movie studios tend to have a slight prejudice against films they see as biographical and films driven by music. We had to come to England and make it a UK-German co-production. So, when it looks like sunny days in Italy, it's actually December in Berlin," he says.

He's a long-standing fan of Darin, whose hits included Splish Splash and Mack The Knife. "The way Bobby learnt about music is the way I learnt, if our parents have a cool record collection," says Spacey.

"My dad had a 78 collection. I grew up listening to the big bands, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and records that went on until the early 1970s. For me, Bobby was the coolest guy ever. While little Bobby in the movie is singing along to Sinatra, I was singing along with the hairbrush to Bobby Darin.

"I really started to learn about Bobby when I was in my 20s. There were a couple of books about his life. I didn't know what he overcame. I heard a lot of great tales and stories. My admiration for him grew as I went along on this project.

"Musically, he continued to challenge himself and stretch himself. I see that in my life and identify with the conflict that Bobby had, that many artists face, between professional expectations and personal freedom.

"Bobby chose personal freedom which cost him something in terms of his career, but I think he chose right. It's a shame for us that he died so young. At the time of his death he had signed the biggest contract to play at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and was on his way to coming to terms with who he was."

Spacey was no beginner at singing. Between the ages of 13 and 22, he did mostly musicals in summer school and college. "I was hoofing and singing for a long time before I went to New York and started my career as an actor. I auditioned for a couple of musicals but didn't get hired," he says.

He began working on the vocal side of portraying Darin years before filming began, with Phil Ramone coming aboard as music supervisor. He did music sessions in recording studios so he could get used to that world as well as watching footage of Darin. They were able to use Darin's original song arrangements to help the authenticity.

Songs for the movie were recorded over 12 days at Abbey Road with upwards of a 73-piece orchestra "which is a bit like strapping yourself to the front of a locomotive and screaming". Spacey obviously enjoyed it because he's now planning a concert tour.

What he hopes the film will do is bring Darin to the attention of a new generation. He feels he's been unjustly forgotten since dying at the age of 37.

Spacey himself will be back on stage at the Old Vic next year in a revival of the comedy, The Philadelphia Story, but recent newspaper headlines that he's quitting movies are greatly exaggerated. He says that a bit more weight was given to a comment than intended. "It's quite obvious my emphasis will be on theatre over the next couple of years," he says. "I'm going to try to find films that are worth doing and if they fit around responsibilities I have for the theatre, that's fine."

* Beyond The Sea opens in cinemas on November 26.