The Oscar-nominated performance that mesmerised Clint Eastwood: “He’s just so creepy in this picture”
In 1994, the field for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the Oscars included a couple of actors playing roles that have historically been a million miles away from the Academy’s minds. Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for his sterling turn as US Marshal Sam Gerard in The Fugitive, and he walked away with the trophy. However, an incendiary performance from another of 1993’s biggest action thrillers was also nominated – and it was one that mesmerised Clint Eastwood.
Throughout the history of the Academy Awards, action movies being nominated in the major categories such as ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, and the acting categories have been far from the norm. It takes a lot for a popcorn movie to force its way into Oscar consideration, and the fact that Jones was recognised for his great work in The Fugitive was surprising enough. However, the fact that another star’s skin-crawling performance in an Eastwood action thriller was also honoured is likely something that will never be repeated.
The performance was, of course, John Malkovich as the deranged ex-CIA assassin Mitch Leary in Wolfgang Petersen’s In the Line of Fire. Eastwood had been impressed with the German’s action epic Das Boot and was instrumental in him being hired for Fire. “Well, I felt that as much as Sergio Leone was right for the spaghetti westerns in the early 1960s, Petersen might be right for some Americana, some Kennedy memories, some contemporary suspense,” Eastwood told Roger Ebert. He couldn’t have been more right.
In the movie, Eastwood’s Secret Service agent engages in a battle of wits with Leary as he plots to assassinate the President, and the two actors share several truly exhilarating scenes together. At the time of release, long before Malkovich had notched that Oscar nomination, Eastwood revealed the actor had brought an incredible amount to Leary that wasn’t necessarily in the script. This contributed to him creating a truly unforgettable villain.
“He’s just so creepy in this picture,” Eastwood marvelled. “There’s something kind of mesmerising about him, even in the way he appears. There’s a lot of dimension – a lot of added dimension that maybe wasn’t written down, which maybe everyone brings to their characters, but especially John.”
Indeed, Petersen gave Malkovich free rein while shooting the movie to experiment and improvise with the character, a deeply dangerous man who has suffered some kind of mental break and sworn vengeance on his former employers. In fact, before cameras rolled on scenes with Eastwood, Malkovich claimed Petersen told him, “Mess with Clint. Befuddle him.”
A great example of this came during one of Eastwood and Malkovich’s many phone conversations in the film, which were shot with both actors actually speaking to each other on the line. Toward the end of one call, Malkovich went off-script and exploded into a rage, yelling at Eastwood, “Show me some goddamned respect!” The granite-faced Hollywood icon was so taken aback that he actually broke into a sweat on camera, which added an incredible frisson to the scene.
Fascinatingly, the movie’s creepiest, most unsettling scene also came from a Malkovich improv. As Petersen smiled, “John has a very dark sense of humour. Very dark,” and that came to the fore when Eastwood shoved a gun in his face during a tense rooftop confrontation. As Malkovich stared down the barrel of the weapon, he suddenly leaned forward and took it in his mouth, much to Eastwood’s shock. The audience sees Malkovich then stare directly into Eastwood’s eyes in some twisted act of defiance. What they don’t see, though, is the reverse shot of Eastwood breaking into a laugh at Malkovich’s chilling audacity.
“I liked it because it was kind of mocking and sort of sexual,” Malkovich grinned. “It’s so kind of Jeffrey Dahmeresque in a way.” His director also loved the moment, gushing, “It’s so sick. It’s so weird. Only John can come up with something like that.”
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