Being John Malkovich

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He tried to be religious and failed, tried to do business and failed, and always set him up to embody psychopaths, even though he wasn't a serious person at all. Special interview for Walla! Celebration Culture Starring in the Spoken Series "New Pope," John Malkovich Reveals That Being John Malkovich Is Different Than What You Think

Avner Shavit, Venice

A little more than twenty years ago, the Venice Festival premiered "Being John Malkovich." She made the American star one of the only casts ever to feature a feature film, and also permanently immortalized his status as an icon. Since then, of course, this movie has been chasing him everywhere - including the recent Venice Festival, which took place this summer, to come to promote his new project, the "New Pope" series.

"You have to remember that the film was named in my name, but I did not write it and I was not involved artistically. I only played it," he says in an interview held after the "New Pope" premiere in Venice. "I'm proud of the film because it broke through and revealed to the world two tremendous talents - director Spike Jones and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Both are very smart people, who have been important and influential forces since then. Personally, if there's one thing I remember from the premiere, it's "There is a scene where Charlie Sheen shows up and turns out to be my best friend. The audience didn't stop laughing for ten minutes. They probably were very entertained by the idea that Charlie and I were best friends."

And have you become such friends after the movie?

"No...".

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"I Wish I Could Believe in God": Our Interview with the Series Director, Paulo Sorrentino

"The New Pope" is actually a second season of "The Young Pope", and this time also stood behind the camera Paulo Sorrentino, who won an Oscar in the foreign film category for "Beautiful Forever." The first season presented to us the story of the first Anglo-Saxon pope, played by Jude Law, and ended with his sunset coma. As a result, he deserves a replacement, an English speaker as well, played by Malkovich.

Sorrentino said he shaped the image of the new pope inspired by Malkovich. As befits the actor's eccentric personality, the fictional clergyman has an interesting life story: he was a punk musician, became a thoughtful British nobleman and became famous following a theological book he wrote, and his early days in the church are devoted to dealing with the Vatican terrorist style organization.

This is one of Malkovich's biggest television roles to date, which has twice been nominated for an Oscar - on "Heart in the Heart" and "On the Fire Line," played by a psychopath, as well as in Con Air. He collaborated with Steven Spielberg in "Empire of the Sun," with the Cohen brothers in "Read to Burn," with Jane Campion in "The Portrait of a Lady," with Michelangelo Antonioni in "Transition to the Clouds," with Bernardo Bartolucci in "Sky Protects Above" and Woody Allen in "Shadows and Fog." Recently, he could also be seen starring in the "Billions" series and will soon be indulged in another television project, a Netflix space comedy starring Steve Karl.

Almost always, Malkovich's characters have an interesting downside: they manage to show a disturbing, sometimes threatening presence, even though he embodies them as never shouting, but speaks slowly and weakly. The interview, which takes place in the festival complex with a small group of journalists from all over Europe, reveals that this is how the star lives. In fact, I have never met a player who compresses so few words per minute.

We have never met a player who speaks so few words a minute. John Malkovich at the Venice Festival (Photo: Image Bank)

John Malkovitz (Photo: GettyImages)

"My parents are atheist and so am I," the 66-year-old actor says today when asked about his attitude toward religion. "But at one point in childhood, I tried to be religious, to rebel against them. Unfortunately, it didn't really work out for me. The only time I was in church was to appreciate Its architecture. I'm sorry, but it's hard to believe that there is any big plan. On the other hand, that's just my opinion, of course, and who am I anyway? "

Even if you don't believe in yourself, do you understand why the Catholic Church is so powerful?

"Beckett once said, 'You are on earth, it has no cure.' The church is a cure. Humanity has always needed God. You go to Rome and see a temple to Jupiter and a temple to Zeus. We always needed someone to blame and someone to carry our eyes to. End of distress. Yes, I have an appreciation and understanding of the role the church plays in people's lives. It helps us deal with questions like why we are here and what we do in the world. "

Did you research before working on the series?

"I didn't have much to investigate, because this is the new pope, and if he is new, there is no information about him. It was relatively easy for me to be a gentleman, and I know the British aristocracy well. It's not just an accent, not even a language. "This is all the way you look at the world. You know, I remember once meeting a top-class woman in England. She struggled with her neighbors because they built an underground swimming pool, and she told me, 'Such a swimming pool, it's so floral.' Only an English nobleman can think that way. "

Do you enjoy portraying such characters?

"Yes, I played Charles II in Libertine, when Johnny Depp played Lord Rochester. Bad boy ... Bad boy like him. It's a lot of work, those roles, but I enjoy it. I enjoy most things, The truth. "

"You're on Earth, there's no cure for it." John Malkovich at the Venice Festival (Photo: Image Bank)

John Malkovitz (Photo: GettyImages)

How do you compare the work with Sorrentino to your collaboration with the two Italian giants before him, Bertolucci and Antonioni? "

"Paulo is a poet, it's not something that can be taught. He came to film without planning in advance, but he just knows where to put the camera and when to move it. His talent did not surprise me, because I saw his previous work, but it was amazing to see what control he has. He put you in front of the camera so you know exactly what to do without having to ask. At Antonioni it was different. He had a different kind of talent. You wouldn't know what to do without him telling you, and that's exactly what he was aiming for. The funniest I've ever known. It's not that I didn't take him seriously, but when I remember him, I think about his sense of humor. "

You said in the past that you didn't really see yourself in the character you played in "Being John Malkovich." Is there a neighbor figure near you?

"Maybe the character in 'Mice and People,' or the one in 'Glass Beaver,' which I did both in film and on stage. I don't have much in common with most of the characters I've played. In life, I'm not a serious person, but I always cast myself for serious roles or intellectuals, And maybe I'm not like that. Maybe the character closest to me is the character I played in Big Buck Howard, a figure that was on the clown's border. Maybe the artist Klimt, who I played in the past, was close to me. I'm not talking about the end result and whether I was good Or not, but how much I felt I knew and understood the character. On the other hand, if you ask me the same question tomorrow, I'll answer you differently. "

John Malkovich, with hair, in 1989 (Photo: Imagebank)

John Malkovitz in 1989 (Photo: GettyImages)

You've had business in fashion and affair. Why?

"Because the costs were absurdly high, and I have no real interest in business, and no talent either. I don't say that condescendingly. I just don't get it. When people came to me with movie-making offers, I told them, 'Are you asking me to market something? "You went crazy? I have no idea what people want and how to sell things to them."

"Are you asking me to market something? Are you crazy?" From "The New Pope" (Photo: PR)

The New Pope (Photo: Venice Festival, PR)

New pope, old questions. From "The New Pope" (Photo: PR)

The New Pope (Photo: Venice Festival, PR)