John Malkovich, the scariest character actor not in Hollywood, stars in “Disgrace” as a South African professor who sleeps with his student and is banished from the university. He heads into the post-apartheid hinterland to find that the racial, gender and cultural politics that once ruled his country have shifted in alarming ways.
Grilled by Sharon Waxman, the actor who in a 30-year career on screen has tried to murder the president, made Michelle Pfeiffer succumb and crawled into his own brain weighs in on villains and moral turpitude. “Disgrace,” based on the novel by J.M. Coetzee, opens on Friday in Los Angeles.
How did you come to do this film?
They had wanted a couple of other actors who weren’t available, or didn’t like the deal. My agent sent it to me when I was doing a play in Chicago four years ago.
They had wanted a couple of other actors who weren’t available, or didn’t like the deal. My agent sent it to me when I was doing a play in Chicago four years ago.
Do you see this film as a portrait of South Africa after apartheid?
It’s not a documentary – I think James Coetzee has articulated that. But I wouldn’t feel qualified to make something that says, ‘This is how it is in South Africa.’ For me it was really just the novel, the screenplay.
It’s not a documentary – I think James Coetzee has articulated that. But I wouldn’t feel qualified to make something that says, ‘This is how it is in South Africa.’ For me it was really just the novel, the screenplay.
You shot in South Africa?
Two weeks there, and Australia.
Two weeks there, and Australia.
How did you approach finding this character?
A novel could help you, but that depends on who your collaborators are. That isn’t really your job as an actor. When you arrive, you’re there to interpret Coetzee’s interpretation. It’s his allegory of the years since apartheid, not mine. I don’t have one.
A novel could help you, but that depends on who your collaborators are. That isn’t really your job as an actor. When you arrive, you’re there to interpret Coetzee’s interpretation. It’s his allegory of the years since apartheid, not mine. I don’t have one.
But your character illuminates a tragedy?
He illuminates a tragic interior landscape. No, I’m not shy about that -- I like to think I can take any character and make him unlikeable.
He illuminates a tragic interior landscape. No, I’m not shy about that -- I like to think I can take any character and make him unlikeable.
You wanted to make him unlikeable?
I don’t think about stuff like that very much. I don’t think about people that way.
I don’t think about stuff like that very much. I don’t think about people that way.
Which way?
That these are unlikeable, these are likeable. These are good. These are bad. I don’t see the world that way. How we’re told to approach the world doesn’t meet up with my experience of the world. Which is that people whom I quite like -- maybe not to the extent Will Rogers liked them, but not so far either -- are simply more complicated than they’re purported to be.
That these are unlikeable, these are likeable. These are good. These are bad. I don’t see the world that way. How we’re told to approach the world doesn’t meet up with my experience of the world. Which is that people whom I quite like -- maybe not to the extent Will Rogers liked them, but not so far either -- are simply more complicated than they’re purported to be.
You like moral ambiguity?
Not so many are so clearly good or so clearly bad. I mean especially regular people. I don’t mean particularly anything other than normal human interaction.
Not so many are so clearly good or so clearly bad. I mean especially regular people. I don’t mean particularly anything other than normal human interaction.
So you see normal people as better than they are thought to be, and worse than they are?
That’s pretty close. ‘Worse’ is pejorative. I would just say more complicated. They say "I’m very religious" -- but then they hire hookers to watch them get in and out of automobiles. I’m not naming names. That’s not the worst thing in history. It just should be a warning to us all not to shoot our mouths off.
That’s pretty close. ‘Worse’ is pejorative. I would just say more complicated. They say "I’m very religious" -- but then they hire hookers to watch them get in and out of automobiles. I’m not naming names. That’s not the worst thing in history. It just should be a warning to us all not to shoot our mouths off.
