The problem with watching a Hollywood actor perform in a very character driven role is that you can easily be distracted by their own well-known public life. Maybe it’s just me, but sadly, I don’t just see a race car driver, I see Tom Cruise acting like a race car driver and Tom Hanks acting as though he is friends with a volleyball. I mean, I know they are very accomplished actors and all, but it’s just how I see them. Some actors, though, can blur the line between their real selves and the characters they portray. For example, even though we know him as the loving (though sometimes troubled) brother from Six Feet Under, if you were on the same side of the street as Michael C. Hall, wouldn’t you cross the road?
Not unlike Hall’s fiercely convincing portrayal on HBOs Dexter, when John Malkovich takes the stage this evening as character Jack Unterweger, we’ll be compelled by his transformation to serial killer. Cleverly, we are invited within the first few moments of The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer, to embrace the man and eerily witness as he blurs that line between Actor and character through simply a name.
