Being John Malkovich director told Malkovich ‘John Malkovich wouldn’t do it that way’
First-time writer and director Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze’s ‘very meta’ idea appealed to actor, and stellar cast won him over, he says
Even now, 25 years later, the premise is outrageous, odd and quite clever. On floor 7½ of an antiquated New York office building, hidden behind a filing cabinet, is a small portal that leads into the head of actor John Malkovich.
There was something random – and ingenious – in the choice of Malkovich, by then a two-time Oscar nominee and a widely respected performer of stage and screen who did not have a signature role: He was the kind of actor people knew they knew but could not always quite place.
Yet Being John Malkovich is much more than an inside-out and upside-down high-concept gimmick. The film’s inventive visual style made the surreal seem mundane and everyday.
While it is very funny, it is also rife with melancholy, a yearning for emotional connection and a sense that people are often unknowable, most of all to themselves.
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman had been a television comedy writer, with Being John Malkovich his first produced film script. Its director, Spike Jonze, who had some notoriety for his music videos and commercials, was also making his feature film debut.
The cast included John Cusack as a down-on-his luck puppeteer who discovers the portal, Cameron Diaz as his patient but dissatisfied girlfriend and Catherine Keener as the cynical colleague looking to take advantage of the situation. Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Winona Ryder have brief cameos; and director David Fincher makes an uncredited appearance. And, of course, John Malkovich plays the role of John Malkovich.
