How did the role in Being John Malkovich come about?
That’s not exactly your signature role. It’s a really quirky film. JC: That’s more like Grace Is Gone, or Max. It’s much more character-oriented. AVC: With roles like that, do the filmmakers come to you, or do you seek out projects deliberately? JC: That one, I’ll have to give myself credit. I was pretty smart about it, because I went to William Morris and said, “Give me the craziest, most unproducable script you can find.” And they said, “Well…” And I said, “No, come on, give me something that is just the most bizarre thing you’ve ever read, and I want to read that.” And they went, “Oh, well, there’s Charlie Kaufman, but he’s great. I could give you that.” I read it and I said, “All right, I want to do this. Track this. If anyone else does this, and I’m not the first in the door, I’m leaving you guys.” And they delivered. They tracked it. So yes, if a piece of material jumps out at me like that… I mean, he was this obviously huge talent. AVC: A lot of your signature roles are kind of
