He’s kind of an oddity as an actor really but he’s also brilliant. His style of acting is quiet, calm, and then in your face and as crazy as you can imagine. John Malkovich is not what you would call an action star but he’s been in a few different action movies, a lot of times as the antagonist. He does have that chilling way of talking to his costars in a mild, level tone that can snap like whip at any second and bite as hard as steel without warning. That’s a lot of what makes him one of the best actors in Hollywood, but he is seriously underrated at times.
Here’s a few roles that you might remember him in.
5. Being John Malkovich-John Malkovich
How creepy would it be for someone to be inside your head without you knowing about it? They could control you, make you do things, say things, and if they really wanted they could just sit back and let you do your thing and take notes. Now imagine being in your own head in this manner and seeing what no person on earth should be able to see. Oh the humanity.
4. Of Mice and Men-Lenny
Lenny is the big dumb brute that can lift more than two or three men and still has the mind of a child. He doesn’t know how strong he is but when George sets him on someone, which is thankfully rare, he can dish out some major hurt. Like a child though he’s sorry the moment he’s pulled back, and will sob like a baby until someone can calm him down. It’s the type of innocence that a lot of actors cannot pull off like this.
3. In The Line of Fire-Mitch Leary
Remember how I said he could go nuts without warning? Well Mitch Leary is the character that allows him to show this in living color and in all his glory. Malkovich plays a psychotic former agent that becomes fixated on the president of the United States and starts messing with the one current agent that he knows is eaten up inside by his failure to protect the president whose death eventually caused him to lose everything.
2. The Messenger-King Charles VII
This has to be one of his weakest roles. It’s not to say that he wasn’t good as the King of France, but the character himself was portrayed as a weakling that would do anything to gain a bit of coin and even more to gain a throne that he so coveted, even if it meant following the words of a young girl that everyone else saw as a serious problem to the crown.
1. Con Air-Cyrus Grissom
It doesn’t get any worse than Cyrus when we’re talking about bad guys. This is a con that will literally do anything to regain his freedom and take down as many people as he can in the process. The only problem in this movie is that Cyrus is really no match for a former Army Ranger who’s just trying to get home.
Like I said, Malkovich is severely underrated at times.
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