This may be old news but I had never heard this before and thought it was pretty cool. Charlie Kaufman, writer of BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, recently spoke to Empire Magazine and reflected back on all of his films. As he talked about MALKOVICH, he discussed not only why John Malkovich but what they’re contingency plan was in case the actor passed on the film. “[We] tried other names, because we didn’t know if we can get him. We thought of Christopher Walken, we thought about Willem Defoe…” While the idea of BEING CHRISTOPHER WALKEN does have some mild appeal in my mind, it just wouldn’t be the same. Explains Kaufman, “when people say ‘Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich’, it’s funnier than any other name I [had] tried.” I just can’t picture that movie with “Dafoe, Dafoe, Dafoe” cause it just doesn’t work the same. I’d have to think that if John Malkovich didn’t agree to participate in that movie, they just would’ve had to pull the plug. Click here to head to Empire and read the rest from Kaufman including his odd encounter with Harvey Keitel in a bathroom on Oscar night.
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