hmm can i get you anything you want coffee
water no thank you theresa get me chicken soup okay chicken soup chicken soup larry
uh i i want to get right to the point from now on i'm no longer an actor i'm a puppeteer okay great
and i would like to redirect my career so that from now on the name john malkovich will be
synonymous with sure
sure no problem with poof you're a puppeteer uh just let me make a couple calls
honey
me maxine maxine i'm busy
maxine honey it's on
yeah there's the truth in their lives and art always tells the truth
even when it's flying the enigmatic john malkovich one of the world's greatest entertainers and the
man who reinvented how we view puppeteering tonight we look at the man above the strings
and the woman behind the man raised in evanston illinois malkovich had
a lifelong interest in theater arts and as a young man was one of the founding members of
chicago's world-renowned steppenwolf theater company from there it was a simple hop skip
and a jump to broadway accolades and hollywood stardom but nothing could prepare the public
for what was to come next and so it was that just eight short months ago
john malkovich dropped the bombshell that sent shockwaves through the entertainment community
turning his back on his former profession malkovich had to start from scratch and pay his
dues all over again as a fledgling puppeteer uh hello ladies and gentlemen i'm john malkovich it's
from these inauspicious beginnings john malkovich's rise to stardom was fast
and furious his breakout performance occurred at this year's emmy awards which
if there's anything that upsets me about it it's feeling like if i move into it too quickly
i'll be you know deemed an imitator but um i think that once uh once we all get the courage to just
follow through on our instincts like malkovich has i think that uh a lot of us will move
into puppetry malkovich's rise to fame brought about a renaissance in the art of puppeteering
no no no what are you doing what what are you doing i'm making him weep john you you're making
him weak but you yourself are not weeping don't ever with your audience until the the
puppet be becomes an extension of you it's a novelty act it's it's uh it's toppo jijo no
he's a technical genius he breathes life into inanimate objects it's very godlike thing you know
to be able to take something and you know make it live he was the talk of the town from the beltway
to broadway aided in no small part by his new wife and manager maxine lund in maxine malkovich
had found his mentor his muse his inspiration in malkovich maxine had found the love of her life
my dear relax this travesty will all be over with by morning and the crowds have been absolutely
sensational and um i just like to thank god for giving us this opportunity to share our
creative vision nothing was impossible for john and maxine in the early days
their union was a joyous one and together they worked tirelessly to further malkovich's
puppeteering career john malkovich the artist and maxine the entrepreneur they make this character
this protean figure that we call john malkovich but some say maxine has changed since becoming
pregnant recoiling from the limelight and rumor has it from her husband's affections
malkovich shows us a reflection of ourselves our frailties and our you know
desperate humanity that's what makes him one of the most relevant artists of our time and what
does the future hold for john horatio malkovich well to quote the barn he's got the world on
a string that's a poet said the puppeteer's voice need not merely be the record of man it
can be one of the pillars the props to help him endure and prevail and i believe that it's over
max i gotta head down to abt now i've got the swan like benefit tonight
okay but when i come back we can maybe celebrate malkovich's big 4-4 okay jesus why couldn't i
have found the portal to a younger body what if i what if i fall tonight and break my hip
so
like that little girl
oh i
i am you
you