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With the 2024 US election well underway, the American media’s depiction of the Democratic and Republican candidates as they fight for the Presidential seat has led to dysfunctional coping mechanisms among the people. For one, Kamala Harris’s ticket to the Presidency after Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race madeVeeppopular again. Now, it seems as though Kevin Spacey’sHouse of Cardshas been getting the same treatment.
Shrugging reality aside for a fictional world of scripted threats and high-octane dramatics is not the best way to analyze the socio-political climate of today. However, Spacey thought differently. Now that the polls have started coming in and the voting has been closed for most states, the threat is no longer a distant possibility but a tangible thing looming in the air all around.
Kevin Spacey’s Reason for DoingHouse of Cards
Kevin Spaceyliked to play real-world statistics against the narrative ofHouse of Cards. The actor revealed in a 2016interviewwithThe Guardianhow any time he thought the show had veered too far into improbable territories, he only ever had to switch on the news to remind himself that they didn’t go far enough.
However, it was not the urgency surrounding the 2016 US elections that attracted Kevin Spacey to the politics ofHouse of Cards. In fact, the actor claimed the two topics are mutually exclusive. According to Spacey,House of Cards“seems to translate [across] borders … not just because people are fascinated by US politics but because of the politics of life all over the world.”
It is, in fact, the politics of life rather than the fight for the Presidential seat that interested Kevin Spacey in joining hands with the Netflix crew. His personal experience with the fans in China wherein his character Frank Underwood is seen and treated as a hero among the common man also worked to strengthen his decision about where he stands with the show.
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A year later, in 2017, Spacey was fired from the show after multiple sexual assault allegations were made against him, including some from the young crew members on the set ofHouse of Cards. The actor was ordered to pay $31 million in damages, lost revenue, costs, and fees to the production company behind the Netflix series by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.
In a hilarious twist of events, both parties later came to asettlement agreementof $1 million after Spacey and the studio joined forces to take down some of the biggest insurance companies in the country to get a payout of their own.
House of Cards’ Connection to US Politics
When Netflix sanctioned the production ofHouse of Cardswith Kevin Spacey getting the top billing, it was considered a game-changer for the streaming service in more ways than one. For the show’s star, however, the series represented many things at once but most of all, it represented the state of the world. On the other hand, what it did not do was depict the grave reality of the stakes involved in the US Presidential race.
In a 2016 interview withThe Guardianabout the real-life repercussions of the American scripted drama, Kevin Spacey recalls how the coinciding of the real election betweenDonald J. Trumpand Hillary Clinton and the one happening within the show seemed to work in the series’ favor. And although that was a strategically planned move to promote hype aroundHouse of Cardsand encourage engagement with the show, the show was not all about US politics.
For most viewers,House of Cardspresented itself as too cynical and as such unrelatable to real-world scenarios. For others working in media or the government, the series was far “closer to the truth” than most people liked to admit. But that is as close to reality asHouse of Cardsgets. The fascination with US politics, meanwhile, stems from an element detached from the series.
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In May, pollsters forThe New York Timesconducted asurveyand discovered that engagement with Joe Rogan, host of the popular podcast seriesThe Joe Rogan Experienceholds a significant authority over people’s decision-making in recent years. With the podcaster’s growing influence and his endorsement of one party over the other, voters who are more wired to podcasts instead of traditional news sources have aligned their faith and trust with Rogan as well.
Who is Winning the US Election Right Now?
With polls beginning to come in from all over the country, the counting of votes is expected to start in full swing in a few hours. The first election results came in from a village in New Hampshire with a population of six residents who deadlocked Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in a 3-3 tie.
Despite equipment glitches, fake FBI bomb threats, pouring rain blocking access to polling sites, and flash flood warnings, people have been waiting patiently in line to cast their votes on Election Day. The first polls will close in Indiana and Kentucky hours from now at 6 PM Eastern Time, and already 83 million people have cast their ballots.
Florida Secretary of State, Cord Byrd, promises a swift declaration of results by the time “you go to bed tonight,” while some in the legal profession are taking precautions to avoid a repeat of the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential elections. Meanwhile, Trump’s advisers have asked him to declare premature victory before the election results are out if pollsters find him leading in swing states like Pennsylvania.
However, some others have advised him to hold off until the official results declaration to not make a fool of himself (viaThe Guardian).
With pollsters receiving highly divisive answers as to the voting preferences from the polling sites, there is no sure way to determine who is leading the race right now. However, more will be known by tomorrow as polling sites begin to count the ballots on Tuesday night. Live updates are availablehere.
The US election closes in a few hours, with the last polls coming in from Alaska at 1 AM Eastern Time.
Diya Majumdar
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2410
Diya Majumdar is a Senior Content Writer at FandomWire with over 2000 published articles on the website. Since 2022, she has been working as an entertainment journalist with a special focus on films and pop culture.Among the countless genres and themes of Hollywood, the ones that particularly favor Diya’s tastes include Game of Thrones, DC, and well-aged thrillers and classics.
