LOS ANGELES: Kevin Spacey, the two-time Oscar-winning actor and star of one of the most talked-about online streaming shows “House of Cards,” leans forward and says that even in his lofty status among Hollywood actors, he still has a personal point to prove.

With new documentary “Now: In the Wings on a World Stage,” Spacey lets his personal passion for theater roar in a film that introduces audiences to his second career on the stage as he tours the world with his own company’s production of William Shakespeare’s historical play “Richard III.”

Spacey, 54, who has been the artistic director at London’s the Old Vic theater since 2003, said his choice to cut back on his Hollywood career and devote his time to the stage, struck many as a self-defeating project.

“A lot of people looked at me like a dog that’s sort of a little puzzled,” the star said with a smile. “’Like, why do you do theater, and why did you go off and run this theater for 10 years? I don’t get. And isn’t theater boring? Why don’t you just do movies and make a lot of money?’“

During the company’s 10-month world tour over the course of 2011 and 2012, a particular poignant moment comes when the play travels to Doha, the Qatar capital, during the Arab Spring popular movement that ousted regional strongmen after decades of power.

“I actually based one of my costumes on Qaddafi,” Spacey said about the longtime Libyan ruler who was killed in 2011.