New House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told People magazine in an interview published Thursday that “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey stole one of his lines.
As Spacey prepared to take on the callous role of Frank Underwood for the Netflix series, he shadowed McCarthy on Capitol Hill to learn the ropes of being the majority whip, according to People. McCarthy was the real-life majority whip at the time.
Spacey, according to McCarthy, asked at one point: “How much do you twist arms?”
“I told him to say to members, ‘You vote your district, you vote your conscience, you just don’t surprise me.’ And he stole that line for the show,” McCarthy told People.
Although Spacey may have drawn some inspiration from McCarthy, the real-life politician said he hadn’t learned anything from the fictional series other than “things not to do.”