John Malkovich
From Philosopedia
Malkovich, John (9 Dec 1953 - )
Malkovich, who was born in Christopher, Illinois, is a movie and stage actor as well as a movie producer and director. A temperamental child, he called his first grade teacher “a motherfucker and cocksucker,” then walked out of school after losing an Easter egg hunt. His father allegedly beat him for six hours for that indiscretion, and at other times his family allegedly locked him out of the house when he was moody, calling out, “Mad dog, mad dog, mad dog.”
As a teenager Malkovich weighed over 230 pounds, then lost 70 by going on an all-cherry and lemon jello diet for two to three months. On the football team, however, he was known as the doughnut-eater. In college when he accompanied a girl to an audition, he got the part, she did not.
From this background, he not surprisingly continued in drama. He attended Eastern Illinois University and Illinois State University - on 4 April 2005, while speaking at ISU, it was learned that as a student he failed to take the last remaining graduation requirement, a test over the U.S. Constitution. The requirement was waived, and he was awarded his diploma.
In 1981 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre he had his first directing gig, for The Rear Column. He won an Obie for his role in "Time West," a 1983 play. In 1984, he appeared in the Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman with Dustin Hoffman, winning an Emmy for the TV movie version.
His first film work was as an extra in Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978). His real screen debut was as a blind man in Places of the Heart (1984). Other films include The Killing Fields (1984), The Glass Menagerie (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Of Mice and Men (1992), Being John Malkovich (1999). Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Johnny English (2003), The Libertine (2005), and over a dozen others.
Malkovich has modeled, likes clothes, owns The Big Sleep Hotel in Wales, and restaurants in France, Portugal, and Spain. In politics, he has called himself a libertarian. From 1982 to 1988, he was married to actor Glenne Headly, then briefly dated Michelle Pfeiffer. He and his French wife, Nicoletta Peyran, have two children, Amandine and Loewy.
He has said, “I don’t go to the movies. I can barely look at them. I find them generally absurd, so horrifyingly flat . . . behemothly stupid.” He also has said that “Film is essentially about whether you want to go to bed with that person.” As a result, he says he prefers poetry and literature to seeing a movie.
Interviewed by Martha Lavey for a WTTW Chicago Public TV program entitled “Artbeat,” he talked about Sigmund Freud:
- I think he was fantastic, a fantastic man. I mean, flawed, sure, but I don't even know what that means. I think his basic premise is people are strong enough to bear and to comprehend, and if they could remember and name the source of various griefs and sorrows, that they would, by that act, be able to live with them, and I think that's quite a fantastic notion.
- I also particularly like him because he was an atheist, and I grew tired of religion some time not long after birth. I believe in people, I believe in humans, I believe in a car, but I don't believe something I can't have absolutely no evidence of for millenniums. And it's funny - people think analysis or psychiatry is mad, and they go to church.
In an interview with Telegraph Magazine, Malkovich also described himself as an atheist. (The Age, Australia, April 25, 2003).
