John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovichis an American actor and director. He has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award nominations. He has also appeared in films such as Empire of the Sun, The Killing Fields, Con Air, Of Mice and Men, Rounders, Ripley's Game, Knockaround Guys, Being John Malkovich, Shadow of the Vampire, Burn After Reading, RED, Mulholland Falls, and Warm Bodies, as well...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth9 December 1953
CountryUnited States of America
Actors generally get to do things you probably shouldn't do in real life - well, at least as much as one might like to or be tempted to. Though I suppose a lot of actors just go ahead and do it, don't they?
You can't take a play someone has directed and do whatever you want with it.
When you do a really good play, the audience and the performers are looking into the same looking glass, the same microscope. And the specimen they are looking at is human life and that's why I do it, that's why I like it.
People always say life is short. I've never been convinced of that - mine seems to have a tendency to go on and on.
You have to play your characters, not like them.
I was a very good baseball and football player, but my father always told me I was much more interested in how I looked playing baseball or football than in actually playing. There's great truth in that.
Some directors expect you to do everything; write, be producer, psychiatrist. Some just want you to die in a tragic accident during the shooting so they can get the insurance.
The world is ruled by violence, or at least the imminent threat of violence. It always has been.
Quite often - a lot of the work I had done had been extensively with women. Most especially in the theater, but also quite often in the movies. That has its own delights, and maybe pitfalls too.
I don't care what other people think. I don't think it matters.
For a while I wanted to be a professional baseball pitcher, and then I wanted to be a musician and then sometimes I think I'd like to start a store for gift-wrapping Christmas presents...But I feel I could do most things I set my mind to, except mechanical things, I'm not very good at that.
Nothing you do particularly matters. But I'm not sure that's a great excuse for doing it poorly.
You can't work in the movies. Movies are all about lighting. Very few filmmakers will concentrate on the story. You get very little rehearsal time, so anything you do onscreen is a kind of speed painting.
Theater is so ephemeral, and I love that.