The Nantucket courtroom in which Kevin Spacey was arraigned Monday was a real courtroom, not a Hollywood set: instead of a dramatic mahogony judge’s bench, it had a plastic laminate desk. Instead of a coiffed character in costume, it had a 59-year-old man — puffy and pasty without the benefit of a makeup department — who responded to his given name of Kevin Fowler as he pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a busboy in 2016.
The job of a performer, of course, is to perform. To create a persona in which the audience invests itself.