NEW YORK -- Kevin Spacey, who spent a decade playing small character roles in movies, figures he's one lucky actor to be where he is today.

	Kevin Spacey gained support for his biopic "Beyond the Sea" because his goal was to celebrate Bobby Darin's talent. Click photo for larger image.

"Some people struggle for years and years and years. So my struggle was my struggle, but when I look at how difficult it is for a lot of other people, I feel I have no right to say I had any kind of a hard time. I got lucky very early on," he says.

Of course, he put in his time in the stockroom and the sales room pitching shoes and clothing, but once he started acting he was on a roll.

It was Spacey's performances as the imploding father in "American Beauty," the creepy eyewitness in "The Usual Suspects" and the egotistical detective in "L.A. Confidential" that set him above his peers.

Now Spacey outdoes himself with "Beyond the Sea," in which he directs, writes and stars as pop singer Bobby Darin. Not only that, Spacey does his own singing.

Why not just lip-sync like everybody else?

"Because I love it when I go to the movies and know that's Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly singing, Judy Garland, Donald O'Connor. There are a lot of good musicals that they lip-synch, we have a good one this year -- Jamie Foxx doing Ray Charles. But because of the dance sequences, we could never have done that if we were tied to the original track," he says.

Spacey, 45, waited until he'd procured the rights to the story before he approached Darin's family about doing the film.

"They had been notably against it. I think it was Steven Blauner [Darin's best friend and manager, played by John Goodman] who was quoted in the paper about five years ago saying, 'Over my dead body.' Look, I understand that reaction because they hadn't met me or had a single conversation with me.

"It was only after I had raised the money in early 2002 that I went to them. And then I met Steve. He walked up to this table where we were meeting in this restaurant and looked me in the eye and said, 'I'm just going to say this out loud and get it done with.' I said, 'OK.' He said, 'I don't think you should sing it. I don't think you should act it. You're too old for it, and you shouldn't direct it.'

"I said, 'Oh, well, Steve, sit down and let's have a drink. We'll get over that.' I think that first day we spent six hours together. And I think once he and Dodd [Darin's son], who I met, were able to hear from me and my heart, that I didn't want to do anything that would dishonor him, and I wanted to celebrate his talent, and if I couldn't get close enough, I wouldn't do this movie."

Spacey spent months watching tapes and listening to records, perfecting the Darin sound.

Darin, who suffered from heart problems all his life, died at 37 during heart surgery.

"Maybe this movie, the book and a bunch of CDs that are coming out will help his legacy," says Spacey, "because, in many ways, he's been forgotten. This revival thing that has been happening in the last couple of years, the Rat Pack, Rod Stewart, and even all these kids that win 'American Idol,' what is the first thing that they do? They do Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra. They want to prove they can sing," he says.

"And because Bobby died young, and he was so diverse, I think that dissipated his fame. If you do one thing really well all your life, your fame is pretty well assured. But he did many things in a 15-year career. And I hope all the love and affection I put into this movie will turn the spotlight on him again."

"Beyond the Sea," already on screens in Los Angeles and New York, opens nationally on Friday.