John Malkovich

The business of discomfort

John Malkovich arrived in Chicago intending to study ecology. But theater crossed his path in 1976, when he founded the Steppenwolf company in the basement of a Unitarian church. There were seven people eager to break the fourth wall with shouts.

His leap into film was a controlled accident. In 1984 he made his debut in Places in the Heart, and the industry took notice of that gaze that always seems to be judging the person it's speaking to. He earned his first Oscar nomination and understood that Hollywood paid better than independent theater.

And the gamble paid off.

But his real breakthrough came in 1999. Accepting the script for Being John Malkovich was a career suicide on paper. Playing a parodic, miserable version of himself was not in the handbook of any star of the time.

He accepted the role without reading the final version of the script.

Because Malkovich has never sought the approval of the mass public. He prefers the strange. So he moved to France for years to get away from the California machine, and ended up designing clothes for his own men's fashion label.

Sewing and Wine

Away from the spotlight, he keeps an almost artisanal way of life. On his property in Luberon, he produces a wine called Les Quelles de la Coste, which he personally supervises. It's not the hobby of a bored millionaire, because the actor gets involved in the fermentation and labeling processes.

He brings that same meticulousness to his darkest characters. In 1988, he played the Vicomte de Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons and set a standard for the intellectual villain that acting schools still study today. He never needed to raise his voice to be threatening.

He commands attention as much with his presence as with his silence.

In 2024, he played fashion designer Lucien Lelong in the series The New Look. That same year, he appeared in the adaptation of Ripley for the Netflix platform (where he had already had a role in the 2002 movie version). His work pace has not dropped below three productions a year for decades.

But not everything has been a success in his financial record. He lost an enormous amount of money in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. That hole in his accounts forced him to take supporting roles in forgettable action movies to rebuild his fortune.

He never complained about it.

For 2025, he is scheduled to make his entry into superhero movies with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Filming for this Marvel production was set at Pinewood Studios in London, with a budget exceeding $200 million.