It’s hard to imagine anyone other than John Malkovich as the title character in Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich, for obvious reasons. While he wasn’t always inclined to star in the film, following its title, which Charlie Kaufman refused to change, Malkovich eventually agreed to lead the comedy.
Recounting his experience filming the bizarre comedy, spearheaded by director Spike Jonze, Malkovich recalled one strange note he received from the debutant director.
John Malkovich Received Cues on How He Would Act by Spike Jonze
Thoroughly impressed by Kaufman’s screenplay, despite being hesitant about starring in a film named after himself, John Malkovich eventually agreed, thanks to Francis Ford Coppola. While the future of the Anomalisa creator’s screenplay was uncertain, after Coppola got his hands on Kaufman’s work, he passed it on to Spike Jonze, who was engaged to Sofia Coppola at the time. After introducing the writer and Jonze, who was yet to make his directorial debut, The Godfather director arranged a meeting between Malkovich and the young filmmaker in his home in France.
As the story goes, Malkovich was eventually on board with the film. But during his talk with GQ, the actor recalled Jonze telling him “John Malkovich wouldn’t do it that way” during filming, which was kind of a fascinating outlook for Malkovich.
“I do remember Spike saying to me at one point ‘John Malkovich wouldn’t do it that way’, and he seemed serious when he said that. And I just thought ‘What a fascinating outlook that is’.”
Telling Malkovich how Malkovich would do things did work in the film’s interest, as Jonze’s directorial debut became a classic, skyrocketing the careers of both him and Kaufman.
John Malkovich Had Nothing to Do with Being John Malkovich’s Screenplay
While one might assume the Academy Award nominee’s acting prowess motivated Charlie Kaufman to put Malkovich’s name in the title, the truth is far simpler than that. It appears Kaufman opted for his name because it sounded funny, which was not the case with the other names he tried out. He revealed:
“When we were thinking of alternatives, we found that a lot of them weren’t fun to say.”
This clarifies why the original draft had nothing to do with the Con Air actor himself, which resulted in the actor asking Why it can’t be “Being Tom Cruise‘?”. But the Adaptation writer had no intentions of changing the name, and for a while, the real Malkovich was doubtful if the film would ever get made.
“Charlie told me quite clearly that he had no desire to change it and that [Spike Jonze] was going to direct, so I said OK. To be honest, I never actually thought that it would get made.
Fortunately, the film did get made, and interestingly, it also serves as a spiritual predecessor to Get Out, as Jordan Peele (sort of) confirmed the hilarious fan theory of these two films being connected.
Being John Malkovich is available to rent on Apple TV.
