On being Stanley Kubrick

In the early '90s, a British man named Alan Conway provided the show business world with one of its great mysteries: How could a heavily accented, clean-shaven gay man with no working knowledge of the film business or the people in it convince actors, critics, and other well-educated artisans that he was the director Stanley Kubrick, a famously unshaven straight man and filmic genius from the Bronx? It was a deception so nimble that Conway even once tricked the New York Times columnist (and former theater critic) Frank Rich, who invited the man he thought was one of the great directors of our time to join him and friends for dinner.

Is there any aspect of Alan Conway that you relate to?
"Yes. He's a fraud"Once the real Kubrick got wind of the imposter, he was fascinated, leading the famed auteur to have his longtime personal assistant Anthony Frewin gather up information on Conway. That information would eventually lead to Frewin writing the screenplay for Color Me Kubrick, which has its U.S. theatrical release this weekend. We caught up with the film's star, two-time Oscar nominee John Malkovich, to talk about his portrayal of Alan Conway, as well as life's ultimate con—the importance of being an actor.

RADAR: You seem to revel in playing charlatans and con men. What draws you to these roles?
John Malkovich: Nothing particularly, but people don't seem to write many things about people who are very nice and had a pleasant day.

It must be hard to play a character you don't feel at least some sympathy for. What did you find sympathetic about Conway?
Manoel de Oliveira, a Portuguese director I worked with many times, did a beautiful film called Vale Abraão, and the last line was, "No one is so good as I in pretending life is beautiful." That could be Alan Conway's epitaph. His life is incredibly pathetic. He rips off tons of people when he's trying to make his life meaningful and lovely and amorous and memorable and important, and it just isn't. It's like most of our lives. They're important to us.

Is there any aspect of Alan Conway that you relate to?

Yes. He's a fraud, and that's the actor's job. I should hope that some people see through the idea that someone like me is more interesting than anybody else. I'm not.

How do you think Conway pulled off this scam?
How could people believe that Conway was what he said he was? Here's how: When they look at Alan Conway, they see their reflection in his eyes, and in that reflection is their greatness, their discovery. When he talks, they hear their own acceptance speech at the comedy awards or the Oscars or the Grammys or the Booker Prize. That's what they hear. They don't really hear him at all. And if they have to give him the occasional packet of cigarettes or vodka or oral sex or whatever it is to get where they believe they should be, then that's okay.

Do you think that for a lot of people, then, happiness is more important than whether their life is truth or fabrication?
I think that, as they say, ignorance is bliss. I can't imagine anybody who doesn't live some portion of their life in conflict with the truth about themselves or the truth about their life.