From the Archives: John Malkovich

"I expected a wacko. He had done so many wacko parts so well I figured he had to be a wacko." - Orson Bean

The first time I see John Malkovich is outside New York's Rihga Royal. He is crossing the street of a roped-off avenue so that he can board a limo, which will whisk him away to Alice Tully Hall, the site of the New York Film Festival's screening of Being John Malkovich. There are two things that I notice about Malkovich: he's an impeccable dresser and, a bit more unexpectedly, he moves with a balletic fluidity.

When he meets the press the very next morning to talk of Being John Malkovich, he is again superbly attired. He is also soft-spoken, erudite and quite the expert with a drolly humorous line. There is a touch of grey in his famously receding hair, his eyes give the impression of pulling towards each other and his thin-lipped mouth threatens to form a sneer. Would you have guessed that John Malkovich - Tony Award winner, Academy Award nominee, American expatriate (he resides in the south of France with his second wife and two children) - hailed from Benton, Illinois?

"He's not intimidating at all…and I'm still intimidated. Despite what he does to make people at ease with him. He's so normal. Maybe it's just something we project on to him, I don't know." - Catherine Keener

In Being John Malkovich, Craig (John Cusack), a down on his luck puppeteer, goes to work as a file clerk on the 7 ½ floor of a Manhattan building. There he and vixen Maxine (Catherine Keener) stoop to walk through the hallways and interact with their loopy boss (Orson Bean) and his even loopier gal Friday (Mary Kay Place). Craig discovers a portal which allows him to spend 15 minutes in the mind of John Malkovich after which he is dumped by the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. The discovery causes complications - Craig's neglected wife Lottie (a glammed-down Cameron Diaz) becomes addicted with the virtual trip, falls in love with Maxine and Malkovich becomes the host body for their rendezvous.

Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by former skateboarder turned MTV wunderkind Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich is an original, bizarre, surreal concoction that works on many levels - people's need to be somebody else, people's desire to be a celebrity, the strange allure of fame. The film is an Alice in Wonderland excursion where identities and personalities, including those of its stars, are inverted and subverted. Malkovich, the subject and affectionate target of this cinematic prank, pokes fun at his own public persona and delivers one of his most relaxed performances. At one point, he is plunked into his own consciousness - a world where everyone bears his face and the vocabulary consists of one word: Malkovich.

"I don't think anyone reading this who's ever lived or worked in Hollywood for more than a second would ever expect this film to get made. It's daring. Of course, naturally, they never thought I'd make it," says Malkovich, taking a drag on his Marlboro Light.

"It was fucking ballsy of Malkovich. He's a great, great actor and a smart, funny person. To be able to send himself up in this way takes balls." - Michael Stipe

"I didn't think it was brave [of me], no," Malkovich responds. "I mean, I had concerns about it just in terms of what it meant personally and balancing the need and right to pry your life, but I don't think it's brave."

Once Malkovich signed on, Kaufman and Jonze breathed a sigh of relief. There were other possible celebrities to fall back upon - neither Kaufman nor Jonze will name names - but all involved agree the premise wouldn't have worked with anyone but Malkovich.

Whatever concerns Malkovich may have harbored about the project, Diaz notes, "He was a really fearless individual who had a great sense of humor about the whole situation and wanted to lead everybody through it." And, Keener adds with bemusement, "He always deferred to Spike. You'd think with his body of work and experience that he'd be very strong with his ideas and maybe given to thinking that his way might be the right way, and it was not that at all. It was always the way that Spike wanted to do it."

"[Spike]," Malkovich deadpans, "can't speak English…which is unusual for someone that's actually American." All kidding aside, Malkovich admired the 29-year-old, who can also be seen making his acting debut in David O. Russell's Three Kings. "He's very smart and he has…an exceptionally delicate touch. He has qutie strong opinions. He's really a little bit relentless."

Malkovich confirms several surrealistic instances of Jonze directing him to be more…well, more Malkovich. "How can you really argue when someone says, 'You wouldn't do it that way'?" Costar Cusack, for one, made a running joke of the situation. "There were some scenes where I thought you were a little lazy and should have done a little more research," he jokes to his costar while bumming one of Malkovich's cigarettes. "I offered to show him some John Malkovich films, I knew John Malkovich from Chicago…"

"Some people will certainly see the satire involved and the comments that are being made." - Mary Kay Place

"There are two things in the movie about wanting to be someone else," Malkovich acknowledges. "One is a very harmless, very good thing which is it addresses and encompasses native curiosity. It addresses and encompasses a very human, and I think not very havable in today's society - a need to leave ourselves, a need to get away from whatever is in our heads or hearts for some period of time. That's a very good thing, very harmless, certainly very innocent.

"The second thing, which is more sinister, is the celebrity thing and the need to live a virtual life. Your sorrows and joys and passions aren't as interesting as mine or George Clooney's. [But] it's the same. We go to McDonald's, we have to decide to park the car or go through McDrive, get a Coke or an iced tea, will we have the fries, and life goes on. My kids are nuts for it. Of course, they call it Chez McDo," he smiles.