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John Malkovich Is Depressed He Can’t Shock Anyone Anymore

John Malkovich

John Malkovich would rather go naked than wear
this suit.Photo: AP

John Malkovich’s new Klimt, in which he plays the controversial Viennese painter Gustav Klimt, has a lot of “quite terrifyingly naked” people in it. (Klimt painted a lot of nudes.) But he doesn’t imagine all the onscreen skin will sell many tickets. “I once directed a play in Chicago called Savages that had, like, 30 naked people in it,” he said at the premiere of Klimt the other night. “It wasn’t a big success.” Bare boobs and butts just don’t have the power they used to, he lamented. “Everything is just a site on the Internet — you know, Celebrity Butts, Bad Plastic Surgery, whatever,” he said. “I mean, at a time if you did Last Tango in Paris, that had some meaning. It doesn’t have any meaning now. You can’t really be shocked.” Then again, he said: “It hasn’t had a huge effect on me. I mean, I’m 53 years old. I’m not exactly a sex symbol or anything. I’m not really offered tons of sexual marathon work.” Well, at least he’s offered some. —Jada Yuan

John Malkovich Is Depressed He Can’t Shock Anyone Anymore