"People don't have access to classic films," Spader said, "but it is worse than that. A few channels on television still play classic films, but with the closure of revival picture houses and the closure of video stores with classic film sections, there is no film heritage."
This does not mean a film or a TV show cannot be art, Spader argues, but neither should aspire to having any lasting impact. Acting on screen is ephemeral, like other forms of performance art, or else it is just commercial entertainment.
The film star, who first won recognition for unsettling performances in Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero and had a much-admired comic cameo in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, is not giving up on film.
Next year he is to appear alongside Robert Downey jnr as Ultron in the new addition to the Avengers franchise, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and he hopes to be able to carry on combining film, television and stage work.
As the son of teachers, Spader said he rarely watched TV as a boy, but had an unusually good introduction to cinema. "I grew up on a boarding school campus and there was a guy there who ran a film club that was available to students on campus and to faculty children of a certain age.
"Every other week he would rent a print of a film and screen it. So I was able to watch a broad spectrum of films from different eras, from an English film like Hobson's Choice to a western like Hud. It was fantastic."
Perhaps as a result, the young Spader felt uncomfortable with playing teenage heroes, despite his fresh-faced looks. "When I was first finding my way there was a spate of coming-of-age films, but I had already come of age. I didn't find a place in them, except to play the antagonist or the one character in the film who felt like he wasn't an innocent."
His performance as evil genius "Red" Reddington has taken The Blacklist to the top of the ratings.
"He is either a good guy who is capable of very bad things or a bad guy who is capable of good things, and that depends on the day," said Spader, who is closely involved with the writing of the show and prepared to defend its violence.
"There are times that I have suggested a level of ruthlessness, or a certain form of decisive action that might be jarring, because I feel that is the world in which this show exists, but there are times when we change something because we feel it is gratuitous," he said.
"We are very aware that it is extreme at times but, in for a penny ... that is the show. That is the world we are depicting. That is this guy." Observer
Television profile
Who: James Spader
What: The Blacklist
Where and when: TV3 tonight 8.40pm.
