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We've been lying for a long time, Francis.

Of course we have.

Imagine what the voters would think if we started telling the truth.

Not to them.

To each other.

You're trying to take 800 pages worth of script

that must be broken, written, rewritten,

and then put it in the hands of a couple hundred people

whose job it is to bring it to life over the course of one year.

Make 13 hours of television

that hopefully doesn't suck.

To put that in perspective, it's the equivalent of shooting seven or eight movies a year.

And then once we finish making 13 hours,

we do it all over again.

So, if that's not insanity, I don't know what is,

but it's a wonderful form of insanity.

Thank you, gentlemen. What do I...

Sorry. This way, I'm going this way.

What's next?

You're slated for fund-raising calls until 4:15.

Also, your friend from the Sentinel called, Tim Corbet.

It's going extremely well, everyone's very pleased.

We always start out with a plan for each season.

What are the big arcs we want to tell?

What are the things we want to explore in our characters

that we haven't explored yet?

Henry. Great to see you. How long are you in town for?

It's about finding the balance of knowing where you want to go,

knowing your characters intimately enough

that you have a clear direction.

At the same time, being open enough to discovery.

And in television, we have the opportunity to respond to those things,

because we're shooting over the course of seven months.

So we can allow something in the first couple episodes

to influence episodes to come.

You can't do that in a lot of other art forms.

- Licence and registration. - The glove compartment, sweetheart.

This isn't your driver's licence. It's a Starbucks card.

Oh, shit. Sorry.

- Sir, have you been drinking? - No, I never drink coffee at this hour.

I came to the conclusion pretty early on with Corey Stoll

that he was a fucking amazing actor and we needed to see him as much as possible.

Originally, his storyline didn't have him running for governor.

That was some other character altogether.

But he was so great that I wanted to put him onscreen more with Francis Underwood,

mostly to see what happens.

I'm oftentimes like an audience member myself.

"I want more of that. That interests me. Let's follow that."

So I made major revisions to a lot of the scripts in the first season

So that Corey Stoll, Peter Russo, would be running for governor instead.

Let's do this.

When I did that, I started thinking of different ways

that he was going to have his downfall.

Looked at the material we had shot,

and here was this call girl that was there, conveniently, actually, for us.

That story began to evolve quite organically with no notion of where it would go,

other than she would somehow be involved in Russo's downfall.

In the midst of that, she brushes up against Doug Stamper.

And the real surprise was this bizarre, co-dependent pairing of these two,

which felt like a gift that kept on giving.

Because we started to reveal things about Doug

that I didn't even know were there.

There's this person.

It doesn't tempt me to drink. It's more like she...

It's more like she feels what it was like when I was drinking.

When I couldn't get enough.

This power struggle emerged between them.

I mean, Stamper, he saved Rachel in a lot of ways.

But she came at him very intelligently.

You know, she said, "I've got information," and she blackmailed him a little bit.

So there's been this tension between them

and their relationship has evolved into so many different things

and shown so many different sides.

You hungry?

Occasionally, it's like a parent-child relationship

and then sometimes it feels like it could be getting romantic.

But they need each other, they really do. Rachel thinks that she needs him to survive.

And he feels like he needs her, he needs her company,

he can't figure out these feelings that he has for her.

Rachel? Don't be stupid.

That leads to an end of Season 2,

where Doug Stamper has been conked on the head by a big rock

and nearly dies.

Which leads to an entire massive arc in Season 3.

So you can see how following these instincts,

responding to what you're seeing on camera

leads you to places in subsequent episodes or seasons

that you never would have imagined were possible.

I thought I might have been dead.

It was a little... It took a while to get that call.

At least it felt like forever for me.

But I'm so thrilled to be back.

Keeping the secret, there's been a lot of ways we've gone about it.

You know, with Kate going away, it was easy

because we took a bunch of pictures while she was here

and we tweeted them out the whole season and this is a completely different story.

You're faking actually the opposite, that I'm not here.

Who's the President of the United States?

Frank Underwood.

I think that Stamper, this season, compared to 1 and 2,

is a completely different person.

With a TBI injury, it quite often is the case.

I did a lot of research

and spoke with one of the top brain surgeons in the country, Dr Schumacher,

and God bless him, he was just a wealth of information.

But one of the things I learned, watching the endless footage that I watched,

is that people can completely change. And the things they go through are insane.

You know, there was even a point during the season

where I went to John Coles and Beau and I was like,

"I feel like I've lost Stamper. I feel like I've lost the character.

"I don't know if it's because I'm spending less time here in Baltimore, or what itis..."

Come on!

And they were like, "Well, you kind of have."

Both of them had a very similar answer. You know, he suffered a major brain injury

and your brain changes and things are different.

Hey, let me call you a cab.

- Here we go, guys. - And cars, go!

So, at times, it felt like I was playing a different person

and was a different person,

and it was fascinating and incredibly difficult at the same time.

You said you wanted to turn over a new leaf.

I have a certain skill set, Ms Dunbar.

For me, turning over a new leaf is using my skills for the right reasons.

The thing that I've always liked about House of Cards

is that it presents a heightened reality

that is certainly not realistic in terms of the machinations and the political dealings.

It suggests things that go on like that,

but murders don't happen as frequently as they happen on House of Cards.

As far as I know.

But beneath the hyperrealism of the political world

is real realism of the emotional world.

I know Claire lied about the abortion,

and I have the journal to prove it.

That combination makes it very tasty in terms of the plot machinations,

but also the internal movements that go on inside of each character.

She can go after me all she wants.

But she goes after Claire, I'll slit her fucking throat in broad daylight.

Most importantly, between Francis and Claire.

And certainly in Season 3, that becomes very intense.

It's destroyed.

I watched him burn the page myself.

And I'm gonna make him my Chief of Staff.

One of the most fascinating things about House of Cards

is not the politics, per se, but the marriage.

Why didn't you ask me before you brought him back?

- We're discussing it now. - After you hired him!

Look, look, I know this must've been harrowing for you,

- but listen, it is only... - No. I don't...

I'm starting to question all of it, Francis.

That marriage, it's unearthly in its parameters,

in the liberties they allow one another,

in the way in which they conduct their lives with each other.

And yet, it's deeply successful because of that.

They have their conflicts, they have their troubles,

but they manage to work through them.

But by Season 3, whatever cracks there were in the armour

have become gaping chasms.

These are pretty monumental shifts for these characters

over the course of 39 hours.

And he sits up, and I go, "We should..."

Be down there, don't you worry about it, baby.

Kevin and Robin are so insightful.

They know what they need from the text in order to make a scene work.

It's a lot not to talk about.

And they also know the right questions to ask

that I might not have asked myself for the character.

I'll have a conversation with Kevin or Robin about work we just did

that might inform a script that we're working on

two or three episodes down the line, that completely changes everything,

forces me to re-evaluate where this character could go.

They're deeply collaborative in that way.

I'm very blessed because I rely on them a lot in order to save my ass.

Here's rehearsal, here we go.

Every night, practically, there are new sides coming out

with new scenes.

It's really kind of fascinating to see how things change.

The overall structure's still there, but some of the dialogue changes.

And some of it is just something that Beau comes up with the night before.

Oftentimes on the set, we change a lot, too.

You have Kevin... It's actually amazing how many times

we come in to do a rehearsal and Kevin will bring up a point

that none of us had thought about before.

And the scary thing is, he's usually right.

Yeah, I want to set aside some time for Tom Yates.

Tomorrow. Sometime.

Is there a way to not say "some time" and then "sometime tomorrow"?

Yeah, I mean, there's only... It's written as only "some time."

"I want to set a time for Tom tomorrow, sometime tomorrow."

That's what I'm trying to get rid of.

There have been some great scenes that came out

that were not necessarily the exact same as written

and I give a lot of credit to Beau for having that sort of flexibility

to work with the cast and to listen and to be willing to change things.

I don't want to say two "times" in the same sentence.

Okay. "lI want to set a time for Tom Yates, in person. Tomorrow."

- Thank you. - All right.

I want to set aside time for Tom Yates, in person. Tomorrow.

Cut.

Episode 6 was one of my favourite episodes,

and the scenes between Michael Corrigan and Claire Underwood were very moving.

You're gonna have to drag me out of here,

because I'm not giving that statement.

It's just words.

Words you can disown the moment you're back on U.S. soil.

Petrov's gay propaganda law? That's just words, too.

There's something about the way, and it happens in real life,

with someone you've never met before and you meet them,

whether it's over the course of a few minutes or a few hours,

and it leaves such an indelible impression on you and it changes your life.

And you might not see them again.

But I find those sorts of instances really fascinating.

And to see them placed in a narrative form, and particularly, with two such great actors.

We all wanted nothing more than for Michael to come home today,

and we offer our heartfelt condolences

to his family and his loved ones.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs Underwood.

Particularly when the actors are really good, like they are in this situation,

if there's something emotional, I tend to react to it very strongly.

There's been a couple of times when I'm, like, tearing up or something,

and I'm supposed to say "Cut!" and I can't speak right away.

Michael was willing to die for what he believed in.

If it weren't for this unjust law,

and ignorance and intolerance of your government,

Michael would still be with us.

Shame on you, Mr President.

I learned a long time ago that the only thing I can do

is be true to my reactions, my opinions.

You know, when somebody does something, how does it make me feel?

And what do I perceive that they're doing, what do I understand that they're doing,

or understand that they're feeling?

I realise that I don't know what somebody in lowa is going to react to,

but I know what I react to.

And I'm optimistic enough to think that there's enough in common between me

and somebody in lowa that they're going to react in a similar way

and they're going to see the same thing.

So I just depend on myself as an audience of one

and just try to be as honest as possible.

Do you want me to have a coat?

Because the actors bring something unusual to it and unexpected every day,

I don't sit at home making up shot lists in my head

and coming and saying, "Okay, stand here and do this and do that."

I'm gonna just say "Action!" and see what the actors do.

And if they bump into the furniture, I'm there to guide them around it.

But it's usually just wanting to watch what's happening in the scene

and then figure out afterwards what the shots are.

Despite making a bunch of movies and other television stuff,

I've never had as close a collaboration with an operator

as I have with Gary.

Gary Jay's been an operator since Season 1.

He's just invaluable as somebody to bounce things off of.

He has this Zen quality about being on a set when there's chaos all around

and he's trying to organise the camera.

Put it right here.

The movement of the dolly and the camera,

I mean, if you watch most of the behind-the-scenes footage,

I'm standing next to the camera. So I have to give due credit to my dolly grip.

And Erin the focus puller is just terrific.

All right, very quiet, guys, we're going to go.

And here we go. Let's roll.

Because if I've set up a shot correctly, I have to operate it very little.

I let the dolly do the moves, the operating.

On most of our shots, the tilt is locked on the camera.

So that leaves it up to the dolly grip to keep the correct headroom,

and depends on the actors hitting their marks

and the camera being on its mark.

And if it all comes together, it's seamless.

I love the choreographed moves and the locked-off frames that we find.

You know, just try to create power within the frame.

It's a little different from most of the shows.

I've done handheld for the last 15 years, so it's a welcome relief coming onto this.

I was a huge fan of the show to begin with. Especially of the cinematography.

It's shot very classically, almost in an old-fashioned way.

And I think that's very fresh for television, where everything now goes fast cuts

and high-speed moving cameras and things like that.

And we take a little bit more of a classic approach

in the sense that we don't use Steadicam, we don't use handheld.

We move the camera, but we move it very deliberately.

So that was a big part of the show, aesthetically, from a camera point of view.

And then lighting-wise, it has a sort of naturalistic style

using the available light, the lamps and sources that are in rooms.

We're not going for a highly stylised look, lighting-wise.

We're trying to keep it fairly authentic to what these locations look like.

And thanks, Robin.

Martin respected what we did in Season 1, what Eigil and I created.

Kept Eigil's look.

Martin liked that look.

It got us an Emmy the first season for the lighting

and we made little variations, but always kept

that same dense, low-key, dramatic look.

And it's worked out very good. Martin is incredibly talented, very sharp.

Action.

I want to go to New Hampshire tomorrow. First thing.

We have you going to lowa.

I know, but I want to change the schedule.

Cut.

What I love about gaffing, I suppose, is it just deals with light.

And to me, that's the most important thing, next to the acting.

I love making the sets look beautiful.

Corner and then back toward the door.

Hold that there.

I love shaping the light, as a key grip, and putting the negative in where it needs,

and making the shadows appear where they also need to be, too.

The state dinner with all the candles

where the Russian ambassador was over,

that was pretty special because we didn't use much film lighting equipment at all.

It was however many foot-candles were on the table.

That's what we used.

Martin had the idea of just trying to shoot the whole thing with nothing but candles.

We wound up placing hundreds of candles on the table.

To Russia.

We got these candles that were 24-hour candles.

Had wicks on them that they just lasted forever,

more for emergency purposes.

And we would wind up placing four or five for a key side,

and then the downside taking them away.

And it turned out fabulous.

Drink!

Television. It starts in a room of writers banging their head against the wall

trying to come up with something interesting for actors to do.

But it very quickly blossoms into the director's input,

the cinematographer's input, production design,

a whole host of people that bring years of experience and artistry

to make this a collective effort.

It's a titanic amount of work that requires a very special breed of person.

All the people that work on this show are working a minimum

of 60 hours a week, 12-hour days.

But really, if you think of the time that a lot of people spend

before that 12 hours begins, or afterwards, the work that we do often on the weekends,

or sometimes the work is just thinking about what you're going to do the following week.

You're looking at 80, 100 hours a week.

The people that are drawn to that sort of lifestyle,

show business people, I guess,

are a strange and wonderful species.

They do it because they take pride in their work.

They don't see it as a job, they see it as a passion.

I love it.

Scene complete, we're on the move. Sharp and Cooke's apartment. Thank you.

Quiet, guys, quiet. Please, can you step on the side?

When you watch the series, pretty much every single shot that you see

has been figured out with stand-ins and with the camera crew.

The camera people are looking at the shot,

and we stay there until the first team steps in.

I've had the pleasure of being a stand-in for House of Cards Season 3.

I've stood in for 13 women, one African-American male,

and also one child.

So I consider myself the Meryl Streep of stand-ins.

Depending upon the director, we do drift from our House of Cards style.

I mean, I think if we just stayed completely with the style,

it might become static.

So it's nice to drift away from it on certain shots,

and then come back to our style.

I came in on Season 3, so I feel a bit like an intruder, you know,

coming to the family, which has its rules, its style, its habits,

and I have to convince them that I can be a new family member.

So it's a quite awkward situation, but everybody is so nice,

and creative and collaborative with the director.

It's not usual on American television.

And of course, it's good for me, because I have opinions.

Probably not best to follow me, I would think. Let me come out of it.

- You're following me. Oh, Jesus! - Yeah, so do it slowly.

And action.

Francis? I just got off the phone with Cathy.

The Israelis want to institute the no-fly zone.

That totally just didn't fucking work at all.

Okay, cutting then?

- That's a cut! - Reset.

Actually, I never distinguished between movies and television.

I started to do television back in Poland Just after film school.

It was in the late '70s,

and after in France in the '90s, I did some TV movies.

So it wasn't, for me, something totally new.

I never did episodic television before.

I was afraid of that, I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep the speed

and still deliver something which is good enough.

And that was a test for me.

And after I did The Wire, The Killing and Treme, I loved it.

Gary, could you cut away for, like, three, four seconds,

start our conversation out here?

And as she starts to walk, that's Kevin's cue to walk into the kitchen.

Can I borrow one of those things after we wrap?

That is such a good facial.

Get out of there.

- Sorry, sorry! - Your hair.

And action, Robin.

What is important, I think, about good episodic television,

American television especially, is that it really became a more innovative

and more exciting medium than film is right now.

And I think it's more courageous.

And also it responds to this need of the people to have epic forms.

To have the spectrum of the reality of the characters

which is deeper and longer than the film could be.

It's a bit like the great novel of the 19th century.

And five, four, three...

This show is extremely popular. I don't know about numbers.

I know that, for example, in Poland, everybody I talk to watches the show,

even if, unfortunately, most of them watch it not in a legal way.

But when the news was published that I would be directing some episodes,

it was like, "Wow."

Even my Oscar nominations didn't have such excitement.

And everybody started to ask me what I think.

Who is Frank Underwood in Polish politics?

I don't know. It is like modern Shakespeare to me,

but at the same time, it's a little depressing

because it shows that the people want to watch corrupted heroes.

And they are attracted to this evil side of politics.

I'm not comfortable with the dynamic we've established.

What, am I supposed to appreciate your lacklustre enthusiasm?

How fortunate I am to have you sort of on my team?

You're not happy with our dynamic?

Well, I don't like your attitude, Jackie.

If anything, you're taking me for granted.

- Sir... - We had a deal, Jackie.

And I am perfectly willing to uphold my end of the bargain.

But don't be under any illusions.

This is not an equal partnership.

If you are to be my vice president, you will do what I ask.

And we will not have this conversation

every time you feel uncomfortable

with what I ask of you, or how I choose to conduct myself.

That's our dynamic.

- Thank you, Mr President. - See you in lowa.

Shut the fucking door. Jesus Christ.

Cut!

At the end of Season 3, there are big movements afoot.

Clearly, the dynamic between Claire and Francis is very volatile

and changes dramatically.

I'm leaving you.

Where that winds up, I've thought about it a lot.

And just imagining what the first scene of Season 4 would be.

Claire.

And I can imagine endless permutations.

So I leave it to the fertile minds of the writers to guide the way.

Way back when, in a galaxy far, far away, I wrote a first script.

But let's not forget that long before our House of Cards,

there was a BBC version.

What are you looking at?

And before that, the novels by Lord Michael Dobbs.

So really, there was a synapse that popped in Lord Michael Dobbs' head

about 25 years ago, and from that popping of a synapse,

decades later, you see multiple versions of this story,

which I think is a universal story.

So, no great thing comes from one brain.

All great things come from a collection of imaginations and experience.

All right, guys, listen up!

It's a season wrap for everybody. So thank you, everybody!

Also a season wrap for Mr Kevin Spacey!

And I'm the beneficiary of a lot of incredible people

that worked on this story before I ever came along.

And hundreds of incredible people who take whatever musings

I and the other writers have and actually make them live.

Action!