Are we going to see John Malkovich channeling Teddy KGB to play a Russian billionaire on Billions for season 3? I don’t know really, but it would be awesome to see the same kind of unbalanced card shark that we saw in Rounders reprise something akin to that role in Billions. It would be great to hear the accent and the slight amount of crazy in his voice at least, but he won’t be operating out of any back rooms most likely and he won’t be dealing in thousands obviously. Teddy KGB was an insane character in Rounders, kind of. The guy was a mobster after all who had a notable tell but somehow still managed to intimidate other players just enough to win most of the time. Of course when his thugs were all sitting somewhere near just waiting for his word to do something that might affect a person’s state of mind when they’re playing poker.
In Billions though he’ll have to play a role that’s a lot more cunning and balanced than Teddy KGB, or at least just a little more refined. I don’t see him being the kind of character that would fly off the hook like Teddy would when he loses anything. John Malkovich is a great actor and hearing the Teddy KGB voice would be great, though you never know. It all goes to what his character is supposed to be like really. If he’s going to refined and upscale then it’s more likely that his accent would be more serious and less likely to belong someone that lives on the fringes and isn’t as high and mighty as he likes to think, like Teddy. If he’s a rich eccentric though it could possibly work. There’s really nothing to say about it until season three comes out and even then everything’s already been filmed so we kind of have to take what we can get.
With Malkovich though one thing is usually assured, we’ll get a stellar performance one way or another. The guy has starred in some truly odd roles throughout his career but at the very least he’s been entertaining. I mean if you want his range look at the film Of Mice and Men that he did with Gary Sinise and then his role as Cyrus Grissom in ConAir. The guy can be simple, psycho, or refined as he needs to be and not skip a beat. So if they had him do the Teddy KGB voice that worked so well in Rounders, and it did, that’s great. But if not, then you know it’ll still be something awesome since John Malkovich seems to take his parts very seriously and yet still finds a way to make them extremely fluid and dynamic in some strange way that makes you remember him years later.
As an add-on to the show he should be great to watch, especially since he can match up against just about anyone. His role in the show is bound to be something fun.
https://www.thewrap.com/john-malkovich-to-play-russian-billionaire-on-billions-season-3/
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