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handsome, middle-aged man wearing a white suit
and dark sunglasses enters the stage and welcomes
the audience with a brief, charming speech, after
which he announces he will read from his latest
novel,
The Infernal Comedy
.
Jack especially acknowledges the attractive wom-
en in the crowd, as the whole book may have been
written only to justify his lost soul to women –
women have always been his only determination,
his world, his paradise, his desolation, his fate.
“Maybe”, he says with an ironic smile, “this had to
do with my name Jack, Johann or Hans in German
that –in Spanish and Italian– translates into Juan
or Giovanni. It may seem such a common name,
John, but if you wear this name, women will love
and hate you, call you a liar and a pervert, but nev-
er leave you alone”.
Before Jack sits down to begin the reading, he tells
the audience that he wrote the novel after his death
and, although he had been a convicted murderer
and the acclaimed author of several plays and
novels, he had never before written a single truth-
ful word. As far as he can remember, the small-
est amount of honesty would have put him behind
bars for the rest of his life. Thus his reading that
evening would finally demonstrate his real quali-
ties as awriter and performer for the very first time.
“Yes and before I forget”, he adds, “I will have the
pleasure to introduce you to two wonderful ladies,
disposed to sing a few nice old fashioned pieces
of music, while I will have to clear my throat”. He
briefly points at two incredibly beautiful women in
wonderful evening dresses, who appear on either
side of the stage to warm applause. Jack cuts off the
ovationwith a harsh gesture, quite different from the
charm with which he begins the evening. Baffled,
the women leave the stage and Jack, his captivat-
ing self again, announces that these two wonderful
womenwill represent several women in his life, thus
helping to intensify the impact of the reading...
John Malkovich
is one of the most important ac-
tors in cinema today. He has played in more than
70 films and is also a director, producer and fashion
designer with his label, Technobohemian. With a
series of roles requiring him to be evil, Malkovich
has made the term “icy calm” his trademark.
In 1976 Malkovich joined Chicago’s Steppenwolf
Theatre, newly founded by his friend, Gary Sinise.
Seven years later, Malkovich finally appeared in
New York, winning an Obie for his performance
in Sam Shepard’s
True West
. In 1984, Malkovich
appeared on Broadway with Dustin Hoffman in
Death of a Salesman
, a performance that earned
him an Emmy the following year when
Death of a
Salesman
was adapted for television.
Malkovich’s big-screen debut as the blind lodger
in
Places in the Heart
(1984) earned him anAcad-
emy Award Nomination for best supporting ac-
tor. Other films followed, including
The Killing
Fields
(1984) and
The Glass Menagerie
(1987),
but he achieved stardom for his role as Vicomte de
Valmont in
Dangerous Liaisons
(1988), playing
alongsideMichelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in the
acclaimed costume drama. He was cast as a psy-
chotic political assassin in Clint Eastwood’s
In the
Line of Fire
(1993), for which he was nominated
for both anAcademyAward and a Golden Globe.
John Malkovich was born on 9 December 1953
in Benton, Illinois – he is of Croatian heritage and
one of five children. After graduating from high
school, he attended Eastern Illinois University; he
transferred to Illinois State University, where he
majored in theater. In 1976, Malkovich left Illinois
State to join the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago,
where he remained for the next six years as both
an actor and director. Malkovich is married to di-
rector Nicoletta Peyran, with whom he has two
children.