By Basant El-Faramawy
John Malkovich portrays a world-weary CIA officer in Martin McDonagh’s new film “Wild Horse Nine,” a role that mirrors the actor’s own peripatetic life. At 72, Malkovich is favored for his first Academy Award for the performance, yet he remains more comfortable traveling the globe than attending premieres.
A Career on the Road
Over a 50-year career, Malkovich has performed live in 47 countries, from Hamburg to Bulgaria, often directing plays in languages he does not speak. “I’ve just been constantly learning,” he said during a brief stop in New York before heading to Japan to direct a production. He rarely watches his own films or attends openings, preferring the rhythm of constant movement.
Stage Roots and Classical Collaborations
A charter member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in the late 1970s, Malkovich built a reputation in plays such as “True West” and “Death of a Salesman.” In recent decades he has increasingly merged spoken word with classical music in hybrid shows like “The Music Critic,” where he reads scathing historical reviews alongside violinist Aleksey Igudesman.
Politics and Principle
Malkovich’s travels have occasionally intersected with local politics. He withdrew from a Tel Aviv performance after a press release falsely attributed quotes to him, and a 2023 production of Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” in Bulgaria was targeted by far-right protesters who assaulted audience members. He dismissed the incidents as unrelated to the work.
Choosing Theater Over Hollywood
Despite his screen fame from “Empire of the Sun,” “In the Line of Fire,” and “Being John Malkovich,” the actor twice declined McDonagh’s offers due to scheduling conflicts. The playwright-director persisted, drawn to Malkovich’s ability to convey sorrow in silence. The script, which references CIA involvement in the Kennedy assassination and the Chilean coup, resonated with Malkovich’s previous stage adaptations of Don DeLillo’s “Libra” and Roberto Bolaño’s “Nazi Literature in the Americas.”
A Life of Deliberate Choices
Malkovich acknowledged that pursuing varied artistic interests has come at a price, including distance from Hollywood circles. At the Telluride Film Festival premiere, he reunited with producer Kathleen Kennedy, whom he had not seen since “Empire of the Sun.” “I’ve done exactly what I wanted, more or less,” he said. Raised in a rural Illinois coal-mining town, Malkovich now spends much of his time abroad, recently singing Bob Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings” to his granddaughter across time zones.
