While much of the cast of Beowulf complained about the ridiculous process of motion capture animation, John Malkovich took it in stride. A veteran of stage and screen, Malkovich enjoyed reducing a film performance to the basic movements.
John Malkovich Advises Beowulf
"To me, it was remarkably reminiscent of doing plays because you go in the morning and you put on all your things, but that doesn't take very long, and really no longer than normal make-up takes, and then you act all day," said Malkovich. "A lot of the things that might have come into play in normal filmmaking don't come into play there. You don't wait for lights, you don't wait for camera, and you don't wait really for anything. Continuity doesn't matter too much. And, you just act all day. It seemed to me, and speaking with the other performers I worked with, that everyone loved that part of it because you came in and that's what you did all day, and then you left. That, for must of us, is quite liberating because, at times, the process of making a regular film has remained quite medieval, in some ways, especially with the amount of time it can take.
Malkovich was familiar with the story from his grade school days. "Where I went to high school, it was required reading, believe it or not, and we had to do recitations from it in Miss Berkhart's English class. I'm sure they were splendid, but I don't remember. It's a very good story, very good text."
Beowulf opens to theaters
on November 17th.
For stills, posters, trailers and more info on the film, go to the Beowulf
Movie Page.
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