• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • DANCE
  • MUSIC & OPERA
  • PHOTOGRAPHY
  • Q&A DANCERS
  • Q&A SINGERS
  • GRAMILANO.PHOTOS
    • Dance
    • Italians
    • Italy
  • CONTACT

Gramilano

- dance, opera, photography...

Home › interviews › John Malkovich: ‘It’s not very pleasant. I mean, life ends badly’

John Malkovich: ‘It’s not very pleasant. I mean, life ends badly’

15 June 2011 by gramilano 1 Comment

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share

On Friday, John Malkovich opens in The Infernal Comedy at the Barbican, London. He’s playing Austrian serial killer, Jack Unterweger, the celebrity killer-author, accompanied by a baroque orchestra and two sopranos, singing arias by Beethoven, Haydn, Weber and Mozart; the beauty of their voices and the music help to invest the victims of Unterweger’s murderous game with the dignity he denied them.

He’s been talking to The Times’ Ginny Dougary:

ON HIS VOICE

“I don’t really listen to it. I mean, I can’t ever imagine being in a situation that desperate… But, of course, one’s speaking voice you’re obliged to hear occasionally. I mean, even if you’re not in our business. No, I don’t particularly like my voice but I’m not going to, like, obsess about it.”

ON SINGING

“In my circumstances, I not only have modest ambitions but a modest talent… but, you know… I’m 57 years old. I mean, I’m used to people hating or not liking what I do.”

ON AGEING

“It’s not very pleasant. I mean, life ends badly. This is the same for me as for everyone in the history of humanity. But it’s very rare that I think, ‘Oh, I wish I were 47 or 37’ – and 20, never – but that would be like once every 18 years. I have the normal aches and pains but I can’t complain because I’ve enjoyed just absolutely spectacular health. You know, a lot of people spend their whole lives just beset by problems that can’t be overcome – and I’ve never really had any problems.”

ON PLAYING A SERIAL KILLER

“I don’t think of it as unsettling. Without saying something as mundane as it being therapeutic, it’s kind of good exercise – it’s like going to an emotional gym. I mean, it makes you deliberate on certain things and I think the very fine thing that Michael did with the script is that this actually recreates what the Viennese felt when they met Jack Unterweger. You know, this guy comes out and he’s kind of goofy and charming and funny and he has a lot of silly jokes and is clearly quite haunted and awkward, but also clever and entertaining and then, eventually, they realise that it’s a continuous series of screens: behind that screen is a monster and behind it a person, and behind it a monster, and behind it a person… This is someone who never should have been out in public. Ever – for any reason. But in our modern system, he is.

“In our Judaeo-Christian society and belief structure, redemption is very important to us and we’re taught that – on the road to redemption – that’s why you say, ‘You know, I behaved badly and I’m sorry for doing this’. And that’s a natural thing in people and I think rather great – and necessary. Then there’s the question beyond that: are we redeemable? Tough call. I really couldn’t say.”

ON HIS CHILDREN

“I hate to say this, because I think it puts enormous pressure on children and I don’t want them to have pressure, but I don’t remember my life before I had them. It seems like it never happened. So for myself, and I think for Nicole also, they have always been our major focus.

“I was a very hands-on parent, but I think you’ve got to let kids find their own way. They’re not going to listen to you anyway.”

ON RELATIONSHIPS

“For me, the principal rule of my life is that I’m never around anyone who doesn’t want to be around me. It’s super-simple, and if they don’t, I beg them to take their leave as soon as possible. I mean, they have to take their leave and go.”

read all in The Times

Photo: Christian Coigny / WENN

 

Related

Filed Under: interviews, theatre Tagged With: John Malkovich

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Aidy says

    1 March 2012 at 07:03

    John Malkovich is my all-time favorite actor. The first film I ever seen him in was Dangerous Liaisons and have been a fan of his since. He seems to be a deeply intellectual person. I wish that I could have a cup of tea with him and just talk. Great find!

    Reply

Post a comment... Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Follow us

  • 16,864 Fans
  • 277k Followers
  • 17,329 Subscribers
  • 28,157 Followers
  • 2,085 Followers
  • 592 Subscribers
  • 878 Subscribers

SEARCH

Sign up to our newsletter

Gramilano news 2019

Categories

Referred-to-by

News

  • English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer finalists 2019
  • Karen Kain’s 50th Anniversary at National Ballet of Canada
  • 8 Prix de Lausanne 2019 Prize Winners announced - Finale Photo Album
  • Prix de Lausanne 2019 - Finalists
  • Viviana Durante, Meow Meow and Laura Morera recreate MacMillan’s Seven Deadly Sins
  • Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake to be screened in cinemas 21 May
  • Jiří Bubeníček’s Carmen to debut at Rome Opera Ballet with Amar Ramasar as guest
  • Dancing Times, February edition - including Gramilano's Danza in Italia column with La Scala's new Nutcracker
  • Roberto Fascilla, former étoile at La Scala, dies at 82
  • Birmingham Royal Ballet announces its 2019/20 Season

Popular Posts

  • Talents young and old(er) for La Scala's Barber of Seville
  • Audrey Hepburn to be celebrated in photos in London
  • THE ROYAL BALLET SEASON 2016 - 2017: theatre and cinema
  • Bolshoi Ballet's Italian dancer, Jacopo Tissi, on his first year in Moscow and dancing Diamonds at the Lincoln Center
  • Cynthia Harvey to become the new director of ABT's JKO School
  • Renata Scotto on Maria Callas: greater than all of us
  • Barbra Streisand's last concert
  • Diana Vishneva brings new Carlson and Maillot works to London
  • Xander Parish answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition
  • Angela Gheorghiu reveals Alagna's pathological jealousy of Kaufmann

Graham Spicer

Writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name 'Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like.

I was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. My scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times. I write the 'Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times.

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+, or follow my Facebook page.



Copyright © 2019 · Gramilano · All rights reserved

about me · contact me · privacy and cookies