Eclectic and acrobatic: happy birthday John Malkovich!
Eclectic and acrobatic
Happy birthday to one of the most assiduous and eclectic interpreters of cinema, an actor who has worn so many faces that he has even played himself in a feature film that bears his name. Best wishes to John Malkovich for his 69 years and his enviable career, made up of theatre, fashion, cinema and TV, which have seen him engaged in the most unthinkable roles: from the absolute protagonist to the unexpected cameo, good or bad, criminal or hero. But how did John Malkovich's career start? And what are the future productions that will see him present on stage?
The curtain opens
It is no mystery that many of the most famous actors we know today have started their careers starting from jobs or objectives that were diametrically different from cinematographic ones. The same could be said of John Malkovich, 69 years old today, who although he wore the actor's shoes from a young age, he initially dedicated himself to rather different studies and interests. Malkovich was born on December 9, 1953 in Christopher, Illinois: his father is of Croatian origin and works as an editor, his mother directs the local newspaper, the Benton Evening News. After a drastic weight loss induced by being overweight that scarred him for almost all of his childhood, Malkovich devoted himself above all to music during his high school years, but his studies led him to Eastern Illinois University where he studied Environmental Sciences, from a strongly environmentalist family heritage. In short, it seems that the young John Malkovich is destined to follow in the footsteps of his parents, founders of the environmental movement in Illinois, but something changes during his college years.John Malkovich
In fact, it was in this period that he approached acting, participating in the activities that take place in the theater department and taking part in various shows as an actor, a path that pushed him to take the next step. In 1976 John Malkovich abandoned his studies and, strengthened by this new love, he founded his own theater company called Steppenwolf Theater Company together with what would become another big name in cinema and his trusted friend, Gary Sinise, and other famous actors today sure, like Jeff Perry and Terry Kinney. Malkovich's career is quite prolific, but the best is yet to come. His acting career has in fact just begun and it was in 1983 that he made his real debut on the big theater stages, first in New York and then on Broadway. Right on the stages of the home city of theater par excellence, John Malkovich plays in the work that consecrates him: Death of a Salesman, alongside Dustin Hoffman.
The following year, Malkovich reprises the role of Biff Loman in the television adaptation of the work, directed by Volker Schlöndorff, which earned the actor an Emmy. However, it is from 1984 that John Malkovich begins to embark on the path that will lead him to a constant presence on the big screen: his film debut takes place with The Seasons of the Heart, by Robert Brenton, a title for which the one who will become a of the most chameleonic actors in Hollywood earns an Oscar nomination. On another occasion Malkovich won't take home the statuette, in 1994, with In the Center of the Viewfinder and, even if it may seem surprising, even today this multifaceted actor does not have any Oscar Award on his resume. In the meantime, however, from the theater stage to the film sets, Malkovich gains ground working for the rest of the 80s in films of a certain depth such as The Silence Scream by Roland Joffè, Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun or Stephen's Dangerous Liaisons Frears (next to Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer and, precisely with the latter, starts a relationship that lasted a few years).
Being John Malkovich
The path has been traced and, for all the 90s, John Malkovich lends his face to a considerable number of unforgettable characters. Already in 1990 he starred in Bernardo Bertolucci's film Il Tè Nel Deserto (where, among other things, the actor meets Nicoletta Peryan, his second wife); however, the cinematographic ascent continues undeterred, for example with Woody Allen's Shadows in the Fog (1992); Of Mice and Men (1992) directed by his friend Gary Sinise after a rather disappointing Gli Irriducibili (1988); the Italian film Beyond the Clouds by Michelangelo Antonioni and Wim Wenders (1995); o Portrait of a Lady by Jane Campion (1996). How can we forget his role as a villain in Con Air (1997) against Nicolas Cage , or that of the musketeer Athos in The Iron Mask (1998) together with Jeremy Irons, Gabriel Byrne and Gérard Depardieu ?John Malkovich
However, how many can boast a film that bears their own name and that leads everyone (spectators and performers included) into their own heads? This is Being John Malkovich , brilliant 1999 film directed by Spike Jonze behind the screenplay by Charlie Kaufman. In addition, of course, to John Malkovich, Jonze's film stars John Cusack and Cameron Diaz and tells a rather singular plot: Craig is a puppeteer who, in order to earn a living, finds work in an office located on the seventh and a half floor of a New York skyscraper. Here, behind an archive, he discovers a small door that leads into none other than John Malkovich's mind and allows him to stay there for 15 minutes. So Craig and his wife, Lotte, founded J.M. Inc., a company that sells the "experience" of being John Malkovich for 15 minutes at a time, for $200 per admission. Ironic, surreal, visionary, Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn and Brad Pitt quickly appear in Spike Jonze's film, all in the roles of themselves.
John Malkovich
The decade changes and the countless faces that John Malkovich manages to wear also change, always demonstrating an off-scale talent and a rare ability to adapt to multiple roles. 2000 is the year of Shadow of the Vampire, a film by E. Elias Merhige which stages the making of the film Nosferatu by Friedrich Whilelm Murnau: here Malkovich plays the German director himself, alongside Willem Dafoe who instead dresses as Max Schreck (real vampire, according to legend). However, Malkovich is also dedicated to directing, directing the film Dance of Blood (2002) thriller which marks his debut behind the camera. Again in 2002, the actor returned to a set of Spike Jonze with The Thief of Orchids, but the following year he demonstrated his ability to tread even the most comical scenes with Johnny English alongside Rowan Atkinson.
John Malkovich
But it doesn't stop there: we see him in fact among the protagonists of The Libertine (2004 drama film by Laurence Dunmore), but also of the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Garth Jennings, 2005). However, two are the most significant collaborations of these years. The one with director Clint Eastwood, who directs Changeling (2008), a film starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich; and the one with the Coen brothers, in Burn After Reading (2008), a spy film where we see Malkovich engaged in the role of a former CIA agent in a film with tones as ironic as it is grotesque and surreal, typical of the two famous directors.
The last decade, between cinema and TV series
Respectively in 2010 and 2013 John Malkovich also takes part in the staging of Red and its sequel Red 2 , adaptations of the comic of the same name signed by Warren Ellis: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Karl Urban, Helen Mirren and Anthony Hopkins also star. After the action, however, Malkovich returns to drama with Gabriele Salvatores' film Educazione Siberiana, a 2013 film with a considerable impact. Perhaps not everyone knows, however, that John Malkovich is also a fashion designer: collaborating with Italian stylists and entrepreneurs, in 2009 he signs the garments of the line called Technobohemian , also collaborating with yoox.com for the creation of a men's collection. An emblem of eclecticism, in short, which is not limited exclusively to the cinematographic sphere.John Malkovich
In addition to the numerous titles in which the actor takes part (think that to date John Malkovich has starred in a disproportionate number of films, almost 80 in total), including Bird Box (2018) or Ted Bundy (2019), these are for him the years that also see him star in several TV series: on the other hand, such an acrobatic and iridescent interpreter manages to adapt to changes in media products, which see a constant growth of serial titles through all the different expanding streaming platforms.
This is how John Malkovich is present for example in the NBC series Crossbones, as the protagonist pirate Blackbeard ; but also in The New Pope by Paolo Sorrentino, where he plays the pope who gives the TV series its title; or in Space Force , Netflix comedy in 2 seasons that sees Malkovich alongside Steve Carrell . While waiting to see him as the protagonist in 100 Years, the film directed by Robert Rodriguez which will be screened in 2115 (exactly 100 years after the start of filming, in short), we can still find John Malkovich on TV thanks to titles closer to us in time : for example, The New Look , an Apple TV+ drama set after the Second World War which will delve into the stories of two stylists who have made the history of fashion, namely Coco Chanel and Christian Dior . A release date has not yet been made official, but alongside Malkovich we will see Juliette Binoche, Ben Mendelsohn and Maisie Williams. With such an admirable career and still full of surprises, we can only renew our happy birthday to John Malkovich!
