On Friday night, I got to moderate a tribute to John Malkovich, the star of Wild Horse Nine,<\/em> at Telluride.<\/p>\n The actor has had a prolific career, and is still constantly working. He delighted the audience with stories from some of his most memorable performances.<\/p>\n When Malkovich nabbed his first two movie roles\u2014The Killing Fields<\/em> and Places in the Heart<\/em>\u2014he found the transition from stage to film quite challenging, he told the packed crowd at the Werner Herzog theater in Telluride. \u201cBecause when you do a play, you’re the editor. It’s a whole different planet. I always say the two are not even cousins really,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so it was discomforting and I didn’t like it so much because I was used to such freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n Vivien Killilea\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n He eventually grew to love the format, and has starred in more than 100 film and TV projects over the years. Malkovich spoke about how he was eight hours late for his first day on The Glass Menagerie<\/em>, the film directed by Paul Newman. He accidentally slept through the day. \u201cI got there and I was really too horrified to even apologize,\u201d he said. He remembers that Newman almost always wore sunglasses when they would go out in town. \u201cEven inside, because women sometimes had sort of alarming reactions when he didn’t wear sunglasses\u2014and probably a number of men as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He also shared that Con Air<\/em> was a very unique experience for him. \u201cThe cast was generally composed of people you wouldn’t let stay in your yard,\u201d he said, to laughs. \u201cSo that was the kind of first. I mean, before that I’d mostly done plays with girls, so that was wild. But it too was great fun.\u201d<\/p>\n And of his iconic role in Being John Malkovich,<\/em> he said he had originally hoped to direct the film himself, but found that Spike Jonze did an incredible job with the film. \u201cMy favorite note I got from Spike\u2014he didn’t say it in any kind of ironic way\u2014we did a scene and I did something and he said to me, \u2018John Malkovich wouldn’t do it that way,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Oh, okay. How would you do it?”\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Malkovich said he had been trying to work with Martin McDonagh for many years, and had even almost been in Seven Psychopaths<\/em>, but the scheduling didn\u2019t work out. He knew immediately that he would sign on for Wild Horse Nine.<\/em> \u201cI love Martin’s writing. I found this script perfect, really,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n McDonagh and Steve Buscemi, who also stars in the film, were in the audience as Malkovich received his Silver Medallion. Malkovich is a two-time Oscar nominee, but has yet to win. From the buzz both here and at Venice, it seems like his towering performance in Wild Horse Nine<\/em> should finally have him back in that conversation.<\/p>\n