Note: This was done in English, posted in Italian and retranslated and edited BACK into English by me which means it was made more American than it was originally spoken so I'm sure some things got lost in the translation.
We are at home of Malcolm McDowell in Ojai. Ojai is found 120/150 kilometers from Los Angeles, an extraordinary island, where Malcolm McDowell has chosen to live. Originally from Liverpool, he has seen it all. There is also a dog that is passing by, practically a special effect. Malcolm McDowell returns to the screen in a large bad role, with this film that it is called "Gangster Number One". We wonder him immediately who this is "Gangster Number One".
David Grieco: Malcolm, who is Gangster Number one?
Malcolm McDowell: Actual her there! Cause she is? Oh, mommy, mommy! What do you want? What do you want, baby? Whatever there is? You want to be Gangster number one? This is the number one, and that's the number two! Forces you to it! Welcome home McDowell! You can see from these parts we love to have dogs of big sizes! I am like the Texas dogs, large!
To return to "Gangster number one", it is a film of which I am very proud, of the rise and the fall of a charismatic and psychotic gangster. In a certain sense when I watch this film, I see myself in the beginning, doing a retrospective one on my life and two at the end, even if I am always "conscious", because of narration. There is a young capable actor, Paul Bethany, of whom we'll speak of in the future, that wears my clothes, when I was young. I am secure that the perverted would to look at "A Clockwork Orange" millions of times to lower himself to the part. To us it succeeds well in the end. The film is directed by a young gem of a producer, Paul McGuigan, a Scot of Glasgow.
David Grieco: He directed "The Acid House"?
Malcolm McDowell: Yes, he has directed "The Acid House", even if, according to me, this is his first large film. "The Acid House" was subdivided in three cartoons, not a true and actual film era, not an entire film era, three parts were united into one piece, born from the same author. This is his first true, large directed film. It is very stimulating working with young talents, above all with true talents, true professionals and young producers like him. Having a certain experience in the field, from the beginning I have sought to intimidate him a little, when I was able, and he was looking at me right in the eyes... has been really beautiful and we have become excellent friends, I admire him a lot and I am confident that we'll hear a lot of Paul McGuigan.
David Grieco: To return to your character, this gangster, he is a gangster of the fifties?
Malcolm McDowell: No, of the Sixties, Seventy and Eighties, of this time.
David Grieco: Is it in some manner a nostalgic film, of the underworld era at that time with respect to as it is today? We can define it as a comparison between the gangster of that time and those of today?
Malcolm McDowell: No, in all of frankness, the ambivalence in the world of the gangster is to chance everything, it is rather comparable to a tragedy of Shakespeare or to a Greek one, with the drama taking root in the treason, in the love, with strong subjects, actually like those of the Greek tragedies. It is not a gangster film, it is far away from this vein, it does not present the whys, the hinges of the gangster film, a lot is more tragic. The story alone is a gangster coincidence.
David Grieco: We have read the excellent reviews before the film arrived in Italy, enthusiastic reviews on "Gangster Number One", but also reviews that were speaking of the large amount of violence that describe it like "A Clockwork Orange". Also that you are always at the center of these large episodes of violence. I wonder how hard it is to continually repeat this experience? Is it hard to always be connected with the violence?
Malcolm McDowell: This reputation has pursued me for some time, you know, something that I know rather well. I find it is what the world that says of me that what a violent person I am. It is rather amusing to play the role of the bad guy, of the violent one, because I will not ever be so in all the days of my life. It is fun to totally lower myself. I have always had fun interpreting hard characters, but I do not want to do it all the time. I will not play a gangster again, even a fine little one, the part is ended, this experience is in the closed drawer. I will pass on others, even if a very interesting part. Surely the true one psychotic, even if extremely violent and discriminate, in the large tradition of the American film, has been perfected by James Cagney, and if faced, I would bow to his feet, without pride. He has always been my favorite actor, absolutely what I prefer, without shadow of doubt, really extraordinary.
David Grieco: Like Jimmy Cagney you are a good person and are very sweet in real life. I wonder where you find the inspiration to do these bad guys?
Malcolm McDowell: It's easy, it is called "the check at the end of week". Is it not?
David Grieco: Is it something that you have known in your childhood?
Malcolm McDowell: No! No!
David Grieco: It's not based on real life?
Malcolm McDowell: No. The actors they are conjurers, that is how is seems like to me. I create the illusions, I leave where I am in the moment in which I am in front of the movie camera. I am able, for example, to walk in a clumsy manner and suddenly, to transform it into being cruel: this is the art of the performance. It is amusing, a game played alone, neurosurgery it is not. Performance is alone, says Anthony Hopkins, pure and simple performance it is. There are no other words to define it. Not that I have a method of performance, naturally I have a method to realize a stage, that is born and like dies a symphony, while it's growing, to supply the public elements that create suspense and others that are flattened, to create new highs and low. Consider these technologies well, how much care the character has, not his past interests me. I do not want to know who his parents are, I do not want to know if he had a stormy childhood or if his lover has been his mother... not me, nothing comes of it! "Gangster Number One" the true one is psychotic, at the end he goes totally crazy. My purpose is, naturally, that to give back the credible story, in fact in a manner that the people believe themselves, it depends very much on the script. It all depends on the script, that if it is written well it makes my task a lot easier. When you work on a script that not it is done well, to recite it is a lot more difficult, the creative elements are lacking.
David Grieco: Why do the American actors always have need of inspiration? I understand that often an American actor wonders "What wakes up this character? What does he like to read?"
Malcolm McDowell: Yes. It seems it is very easy it make one emerge as an actual Latino and to think I played one! I do not believe that it matters how one arrives at the result, but it is fundamental to arrive, to reach without being obvious. I want the public, when it sees me play a specific character, not know me as their neighbor might move, to take them along the route an absolute stranger, the onlookers should not know what for, I want to be totally unpredictable and dangerous. The people it should look at it to observe it. Observe with a smile on the mouth, they should be surprised; I also want them to know that I am reciting but, although it should be believable. I have to. The true art is of the performance, like in the greatest tradition of Lindsey Andersen, that Brecht directed and an extraordinary documentarist, Humphrey Jennings, of whom he knows the work and that, naturally returns to John Ford.
David Grieco: Over here I see John Ford painted by your wife, the very capable painter, Kelley McDowell. There is a t-shirt of which I was very impressed with. It read that what American actors have learned, they have learned from Freud, while the English actors always have learned from Shakespeare. Is it correct to say that the difference between the English actors and the American ones is the school of Shakespeare and Freud?
Malcolm McDowell: No. I don't believe that.
David Grieco: Their school is?
Malcolm McDowell: I believe, in all of honesty, that we have grown with a different discipline, and vale from all of the English actors. When I began I did not believe that I would ever live to act in a hundred films. I have done it because I bitterly love this occupation. Never would I have thought that I would've been paid a lot do it, actually because it was amusing me a lot, and they would've heard my guilt if they knew how much they paid me today to act. Now that sense of guilt has vanished, naturally, but when I was a young actor I did not succeed in believing I would be so fortunate. For the English actors and for most of the European actors the performance represents a large shape of art, with a large tradition. All we Anglos think we are faces, better than the large stars, with an immense luck, and that I am more fortunate than the other. I know actors of large talent that will not succeed ever to leave the almanac reciting, but I would not know to say their the secret is to have luck. In Europe, and surely in England, we have a large tradition, just like in Italy; the actors begin in theater and whoever has the luck goes to film, it is decided they are privileged from the economical point of view. I have always immediately loved the huge glamour of the movie camera, of the technology, always have loved the possibility to interrupt and to redo the performance. The possibility in fact that the final stage of the film you can renew the beginning, to return to it. For it is very exciting working in this way, and then to observe all under to the microscope. It amuses me and I have an excellent relation with the movie camera. When I am in front of it and oblivious, I feel home, totally relaxed.
David Grieco: From very the beginning?
Malcolm McDowell: From the very first moment, in the beginning of my career. I have been very fortunate in this. I remember when I was a youngster, when I was working for the Royal Shakespeare Company. I had gone to deliver my letter of resignation directly to Peter Hallway, that I hardly knew. I went to in and I said to him "Signor Hallway, a pleasure it was to know you, I thank you for everything, but I hate working here, I would rather prefer to be in an administrative office, to work for the Government than a company like this." He then answered me "Really? And what will you do?" and I replied "I will be an actor in the cinema", and Hallway replied, "Well, good luck!"
David Grieco: I wonder how much it matters.
Malcolm McDowell: Look at these dogs! Incredible! It is amusing to see them arrive!
David Grieco: Yes, a little like: "it is time, action!"
Malcolm McDowell: Acck! The stinking dogs!
David Grieco: How much does it matter to have irony and a sense of humor in this profession?
Malcolm McDowell: How much does it matter in life? It is crucial. I cannot do anything without seeking the funny side of things, second to the situations, naturally. Someone that is diabolical, with a wealth of humor, even if concealed, becomes even more diabolical. I believe that the humor in life or on the set is fundamental to maintain a high spirit and to go ahead and do things, to maintain caution and in the interest of everything in the work that is developing. It matters.
David Grieco: Why haven't you ever directed a film?
Malcolm McDowell: Most likely because I am too impatient. Look at the immediacy given to the actors, "action, it is time, end". There was a moment in which I believed that I would direct and that I was thinking that I was capable of doing it, all actors believe it, some actors become excellent producers.
David Grieco: You have had big teachers, big teachers!
Malcolm McDowell: Yes, it would have pleased me to be able to transmit some of the things that I have been taught, above all from Lindsey Andersen, because he was very special. He was extraordinary, a real gem, but to work on a project for two years it is too much. I have been offered the possibility in fact, but it was eighteen months. I had other plans, and so I have always withdrawn. I think sincerely that, if this is my attitude, it is better that I not face the producer; a producer should be dedicated to the actual life of a specific work for the whole time, he should throw himself into it body and soul. I am not decided, for an actor things can change, but his engagement is a lot more limited. My reply is clear enough?
David Grieco: Clear. Why don't we move out on the terrace?
Malcolm McDowell: Certainty.
David Grieco: I want to know how it compares with America.
Malcolm McDowell: What compares?
David Grieco: You have lived from more twenty years in the United States, an English actor is always that. I wonder how you wound up in the United States?
Malcolm McDowell: Look this country, England, is not lacking me completely. Naturally I occasionally see my family and friends. I find America extremely liberating, England is, or at least was, very bound to the system of division in the social classes. Perhaps it is a little pretentious for me to say it, but in England this division takes root to all of the social levels, perhaps it is not anymore. Thank God today England has almost entered part of the 21st century, for how much we care about Europe, even if not hatchet still to 100% the euro. I believe that the English live in a large dilemma, they do not know how to decide - if to be European, insular or quaint other. Since it pertains to me I always have believed to be psychologically more American and not much traditionally English .
David Grieco: Have you always felt this way?
Malcolm McDowell: I have always felt this way and as soon as I stepped foot in America, I have felt at home. To come and live here has never be a problem for me. The Americans, they speak English, so they say, it should be easy, but in reality it is an illusion. In a certain sense I would want a different tongue of everything, because the same tongue has different meanings, and you need to learn to pick up the all the slang. Of course it takes time to know the different features of the life here. I have put in ten years overall to understand finally what was happening, ten years to become totally comfortable with the life here. From a philosophical point of view I feel myself totally at home here. I have always been more near an American than England.
David Grieco: When you say "here" not Los Angeles or New York?
Malcolm McDowell: No, no.
David Grieco: You mean Ojai?
Malcolm McDowell: This is my house. This landscape could be wherever, it could be in Sardinia, in Tuscany, in Sicily... a part is the old one west, very romantic. Here Capra has turned "The Lost Horizon", "Shangri-La", in the film of 1937. It is an extraordinary place, magical, that I adore, honestly I would not want to live in any other place. This is the point that infuses more peace on all of the planet and I can say it because I do not live always here. Often I go away for work and when I return it relaxes me totally, then I leave and I must return here every two or three months. Saying this, I do not know if I could live here permanently or in any other place, a responsibility that no one has ever asked for. Perhaps I will stop when I go into retirement, if ever, I do not believe it will happen, like John Gielgud, God bless him, wherever he is!
David Grieco: One last question. Why do people like you, born in a large town, feel a strong attraction for the country? Wherever you have gone, you are attracted to the country, in Italy, in America. Why?
Malcolm McDowell: Look at the country life, it is very civilized. The food is good, places to walk, I adore the dogs, all places like this. I make myself feel at home. Also my wife, my partner, this life, the dogs, loves me and this place. I am fortunate that she also experienced the same passion for this place, the feeling that we share is extraordinary. If my wife was not pleased, I would likely live in an apartment downtown, since the men always do always what the women want!
David Grieco: I believe it is a very weird feeling to go from a place like this to the set of a film.
Malcolm McDowell: Certainly. Especially here. I go all to the time to London to recite the role of a monster, but I study my part in this cabana, that dominates my land, a true paradise. In this angle of paradise, where responsibility troubles me, coiled in the silence, I learn to fight, to arbitrate, to send all to the devil. It is very weird, above all here, immersed in the peace with an extraordinary view that I admire from the window, then to return to study my script. It is weird, really weird, but it is the ideal place in which to work, to put together the pieces of the performance in a room off this cabana, or sitting at this table, while I repeat the part. While every single one of my pores absorbs the part and I live it, actually here. Then I get on a plane and I leave for a quarter of London, where the working-class class people live, and where the rehearsals begin; it is weird, but it works!
David Grieco: I believe! I am sure that it works. I know that it works! Thanks Malcolm.
Malcolm McDowell: It IS a pleasure, it is always a pleasure!
This translation © 2001-408Alex D. Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net