Here is a brief excerpt from an interview of Kevin Spacey by Alison Beard for Harvard Business Review and the HBR Blog Network. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, obtain subscription information, and receive HBR email alerts, please click here.

Photo Credit: Jay L. Clendenin by Getty Images

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Kevin Spacey acted on Broadway in the 1980s, hit it big in Hollywood in the 1990s, and then surprised everyone by moving to London to become the director of the Old Vic Theater. In 2013 he returned to the screen, producing and starring in Netflix’s first streaming series, House of Cards. Why all the unconventional career moves? As he told a 2015 World Business Forum audience, “It’s the risk takers who are rewarded.”

You just stepped down as director of the Old Vic. Did you accomplish what you wanted to?

The most important thing was succession. In Jim Collins’s book Good to Great, he looks at successful CEOs and examines what happens after they leave. There are many examples of brilliant, brash, PR-seeking people who were concerned with how their companies did only while they were there. But then you have other CEOs who were quieter and surrounded themselves with smart lieutenants and built companies that thrived with the next CEOs and the ones after that. The Old Vic had at one time been a premier producing theater, but after 1976, when the National Theater moved, it became a booking house, a place you could rent. Although there were a number of attempts to restart a theater company, none succeeded. So I was fighting 30 years of being off the map, and I wanted to make sure we built a company right and solidly so that when I left, it would continue. The fact that Matthew Warchus has just signed on for six seasons means that we’ve delivered on that promise.

Why did you take the job in the first place?

I had focused on building my career for about 10 or 12 years, and it had gone better than I could have hoped. I didn’t want to spend another 10 years pursuing the same dream. I had done what I set out to do, and I wanted to be challenged on a different level. Then, lo and behold, the Old Vic fell into my lap. The idea of returning to the theater and running a company was so engaging and exciting that I never saw it as walking away from something; I saw it as walking toward something, even though at the time a lot of people thought I was fucking out of my mind. What’s been really satisfying is that maybe I don’t look so crazy anymore. I know in my heart that if I hadn’t gone to London, hadn’t done a play or two every year, hadn’t worked with Trevor Nunn, Matthew Warchus, and Howard Davies, I would never have been ready for a role like Frank Underwood in House of Cards. The decade at the Old Vic made me a better actor.

And a better leader?

I had always learned that when you take on a role, acting or directing, you have a responsibility to bring the right spirit and energy every day to create something with a group of people. I was very fortunate to have mentors who were great examples, not because they sat me down and gave me lessons but because of the way they behaved. There’s a different kind of leadership in running a theater and staff, a company, productions, fundraising, educational and community projects. I learned as I went along. I read. I asked questions of leaders I admire. I studied other theatrical beginnings in Great Britain so I knew what to expect.

While managing the Old Vic, you also starred in key productions. How do you play both roles effectively?

I finally learned I couldn’t give eight performances a week while I was running the theater. When I recently did a one-man show, I did six a week, never twice in a day, which was a fine schedule. I had to learn what I was capable of.

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Here’s a direct link to the complete interview.