48TH THESSALONIKI FILM FESTIVAL
November 16-25 2007
JOHN MALKOVICH MASTERCLASS
On Sunday, November 18th, popular actor, director and producer, John Malkovich opened the round of masterclasses at the 48th Thessaloniki Film Festival.
Malkovich was introduced by the Director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, Despina Mouzaki, who said: “You are truly giving us a chance of being John Malkovich, a man whose art takes us on a long journey".
The American actor was on the panel accompanied by his close friend and producer Russell Smith. Russell Smith shared an incident from the film Being John Malkovich with the audience. “When we went to talk to director Spike Jonze, we also had Kevin Spacey and Alex Baldwin in mind for the lead role. As time went by, though, we decided that no one but Malkovich could act in this special project”.
When asked what subjects fascinate him as a director, Malkovich answered that he is interested in stories that he loves and that he would like to see on celluloid. Regarding how he approaches a role and whether he follows a certain method in theatre or in television, Malkovich said: “There is no Malkovich method. When I began acting, my method was to refuse any of the known, existing methods. I didn’t want to follow a single method like in the English tradition, nor a guided one like in Actors studio. For example, our intention in the theatre was to create something living every single night. The same thing happened later in cinema. I try to create something living in every shot, whether it’s one shot or three hundred of them. In the Steppenwolf theatre group, our director would give us instructions every single night we played, no matter how long we played that performance. So, we were constantly working and perfecting our roles”.
Regarding whether he likes to play the role of the bad guy, Malkovich explained that it’s not the place of an actor to judge what those characters did, but to understand them and to present an image of how the world is. Malkovich also explained how he experiences the feelings of the characters he plays, saying that the only thing he can do is to imagine how the character would feel in those situations.
When asked to pick between acting and directing, Malkovich revealed that he prefers to direct: “I believe that when you direct, it’s exclusively your perspective that comes through, unlike when you are acting a part. Directing has a totality that acting simply doesn’t”.
Regarding whether he is afraid of failure, John Malkovich said that “if you’re not worried about failing and you’re well prepared, you have nothing to worry about. It’s better to sit down and study your role or production that to spend all that time worrying about failure”.
Furthermore, Malkovich claimed that he views new technologies as a positive thing in cinema, saying that they provide new directors with many options. “We can now talk about democracy in cinema, since some wonderful opportunities have risen for people who don’t have the budget but have great ideas”, he said.
Regarding whether his dreams have come true from when he started his career many years ago in Chicago, Malkovich said that “the speculation, anxieties and joys all remain the same. I am troubled by the same things that troubled me when I was 22. Like, for example, whether a particular film could be funnier, more dramatic, more acceptable, or just better in the end”.
