Yahoo! Movies
1999
Questioner: I'd like to thank you all for agreeing to sit down together to do
this.
John Cusack: Our pleasure.
Q: Actually, since there are two Johns in the cast, would you mind if I
referred to you as Cusack and Malkovich?
JC: Not at all.
John Malkovich: No.
Q: Great. You two, Cusack and Malkovich, have worked together before, in "Con
Air," right?
JC: That's right. After seeing his performance in "Making Mr. Right," I knew
that John and I would work together someday. I then found out that John had seen
"One Crazy Summer," and I think he was moved by my performance in that as well.
So we began to write to each other, and that led to a long, intricate
correspondence -- nine and ten-page letters to each other.
Q: Is that true, Malkovich?
JM: No.
Q: So it was really "Con Air" director Simon West who brought you guys
together?
JC: Yeah. He was cooking for both of us at the time. He was our saucier, and
he wore this nice, but kind of weird, waitressy outfit. He had his hair up in a
nice bun. It worked out rather nicely. He was also our healer, spiritual teacher
and friend.
Q: Is that right, Malkovich?
JM: No.
Q: Cameron and Catherine, did you two know each other well before being cast
in Being John Malkovich?
Catherine Keener: Yes, we became friends when Cameron was working on "My Best
Friend's Wedding" with my husband, Dermot, but we had never worked with each
other before.
Cameron Diaz: Although I've wanted to ever since I met Catherine: she is the
most amazing actress.
Q: So, let's talk a little about the film, the characters, and the production
itself. Cusack, let's start with you.
JC: Shoot.
Q: You play an out-of-work street puppeteer named Craig -
JC: Schwartz. Schwartz, Schwartz, Schwartz, Schwartz, Schwartz. That's all
I'd like to say about the character.
Q: Okay. You look quite different in this film, unlike anything we've seen
before.
JC: Yeah, I've done a moustache and beard before, but never to the extent of
the Craig Schwartz look.
Q: Cameron, you look quite different, too, as Lotte, Craig's wife,
CD: Do you think anyone will notice?
JM: No.
Q: You all had to endure some pretty harsh conditions during filming both
script-related and production-related. Can you tell me about what you had to
undergo to make this movie?
JC: Besides sweating profusely? Let's see, for me, the hardest part was
probably the back, soreness. Spike -- -who, incidentally, hates the poor, the
disenfranchised, actors, the Irish, all the races, colors, creeds, and sexes --
and Charlie Kaufman conceived, and had sets built, where tall people like myself
could not comfortably act. I'm 6'2," and that damn 7 1/2th floor was only 5'3"
tall. Of course, Spike and Charlie are both short guys -- they could walk around
just fine, thank you very much. So it was like one of those military mindsets:
"I want to keep my actors uncomfortable, keep them under my thumb, break them
like horses..." All that stuff which I really didn't appreciate. Look at me
right now: my posture is completely erect. I am a trained Shakespearean actor,
and this is how I would have played Schwartz. The short sets were Just another
example of Spike trying to dominate the film.
CD: Cusack and I both pointed this issue out to Charlie. We said, "Hey dude,
what's going on here? Everybody's caged in, cramped, nobody can even stretch..."
My skirts were so tight, I couldn't even take a full step in them. It was
constant confinement. And, I got tied up, bound and gagged, locked in a cage,
hung off the side of a moving school bus, dropped out of the sky into dirt in
the pouring rain. Crazy stuff -- it was just nuts what we had to go through for
Spike's "vision."
CK: And it's not like he made the stunts any easier for us because we're
women.
CD: Right! And weren't we supposed to get hazard pay or something?
CK: I don't know. But I have to admit, it was kind of fun. Getting hurled out
of a bus at 35 miles an hour, Cameron choking me and all I could see were cars
whizzing by. And then there was this one stunt that was really involved. Spike
wanted to do it at the beginning of the night shoot. But we also had to shoot a
long, emotional scene between Lotte & Maxine in the rain. Spike said they
wouldn't take the whole night on the stunt so there'd be enough time for us to
do the scene. But of course the scene took nearly all night -- there was only I
hour of darkness left, so we had to hurry. We did one take, and then Spike asked
me to do something completely different. So I tried that and he came back again
and said the first approach was better. Great. Now there was enough time for
only two more takes before the sun came up. Spike claims that I said "Get away
from me before I push you down the hill," but I don't remember that part.