Malcolm McDowell on Caligula in the Calgary Sun 8/30/99

McDowell credits 'the porn'

By Louis B. Hobson | Calgary Sun Monday, August 30, 1999
    Malcolm McDowell has mixed feelings about the 20th anniversary release of Caligula. This was the Penthouse version of the life of one of Rome's most decadent emperors. McDowell played the sex-obsessed Caligula.
    "It was the first $15-million porno movie ever made, which I guess qualifies it for fame," says McDowell. "It's made more money than any other film I've done. I credit the porn, not my performance."
    Gore Vidal, the original director, walked off the film early in the shoot.
    "Gore was the whole reason I agreed to do the film," says McDowell. "I was left all alone on a movie where no one could write or speak English. We didn't have a script, so it was pure pandemonium."
    McDowell hopes viewers remember him more for Stanley Kubrick's 1971 cult classic A Clockwork Orange. He knows for certain that the film has one diehard fan.
    "Hugh Hefner faxed me one day. Apparently, he has a movie club at the Playboy mansion. He's a film fanatic and a fanatic for detail. He wanted to know if I had an air tank off-camera for the underwater sequence. He also wanted to know why I didn't get aroused during the orgy scene. I told him I was feeling particularly shy that day."
    McDowell's is currently starring in My Life So Far and is scheduled to begin filming Gangster No. 1.
    "It's a very violent, profane, bullet-ridden piece similar to Reservoir Dogs. It's about a gangster's descent into madness. It's quite a departure from My Life So Far."