Actor Malcolm McDowell Makes his Home in Shangri-La
OVN by Kristy Dark and John Grant 3/15/00
Legendary actor Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) has been an Ojai resident for almost 20 years, and serves on the Honorary Advisory Board of Ojai Film Festival 2000. This interview was conducted on Feb. 15 at Local Hero bookstore in the arcade.
Q: What do you like best about Ojai?
A: The tranquility and natural beauty and the town, which is charming. Last year I was traveling for 10 months, so it makes a difference when you get back to a little Shangri-La like this. Makes it all worthwhile.
Q: What are some of your favorite activities here?
A: Activities such as the Film Festival and all that are very important. I love this little theater that Kim Maxwell-Brown started with her husband [Theatre 150]. My favorite thing is the Tennis Tournament. Now that for me is the finest, one of the great tennis tournaments of the world. It's fantastic!
Q: What do you see as some benefits of a film festival here?
A: It would be very good for the town. Anything we can do to help the shopkeepers and the restauranteurs, who put their money and their life into what they do. That's why we buy locally always.
Q: The theme of Ojai Film Festival 2000 is "Horizons Lost and Found - Enriching the Human Spirit Through Film." Could you name a few films that stand out for you as having this quality?
A: I suppose if you go back to the greatest film of all time in terms of enriching the human spirit, it would be the Jimmy Stewart film, It's a Wonderful Life. It's a wonderful film.
Q: A Clockwork Orange is being re-released in England, and of course we all remember your unforgettable portrayal of Alex in that film. What makes Alex so fascinating to us?
A: You get the sense that he must have tremendous intelligence, and yet there's no morality. That's a very exciting combination, isn't it?
Q: Frightening.
A: It's a frightening combination, yeah. Because there's no self-censorship. But his one saving grace is that he loves Beethoven. How bad can you be?
Q: What do you see as the underlying theme of that film?
A: That film is about the freedom of choice. That should be an inherent right of every citizen -- to choose. And these choices are being diluted, diluted, diluted. Burgess was very clever because he made the hero or anti-hero immoral. By making him an immoral character, there's a real dilemma. It's like the First Amendment rights, where do you draw the line? The thing is, there should be no line really.
Q: You've played a lot of "bad guys." Do you find those roles more challenging or fulfilling?
A: I wouldn't know, 'cause I'm never offered anything else. (laughs) Playing bad guys can be great fun. But what's good and what's bad? A so-called "baddie" in his eyes he may not be bad at all, just misunderstood. Nothing is black and white.
Q: When you play those characters, do you feel compassion for them?
A: I love all the characters I play. Even serial killers. There's always something in a person that's to like.
Q: Do you think film will still be with us 100 years from now?
A: In some shape or form. I don't know whether they'll go to a new format. But there's nothing quite like going into that theater, is there really? Seeing it on a big screen is fabulously exciting.
Q: You've just been selected to be one of the first colonists on Mars, and you can only take two movies with you. Which two do you pick?
A: The Maltese Falcon. Always been a favorite of mine. Only two is not really fair, but I'll say The Thin Man.
Q: Could you tell us about some of your recent and upcoming film projects?
A: I've got two sort of major movies coming out, one of which I think is fantastic. It's called Gangster No. 1, about the rise and fall of a charismatic gangster in the East End of London. It's a very well-written script, very violent, very profane -- and fabulous.
Q: You have a film screening here on March 19, My Life So Far.
A: A very charming film set in 1930, in that twilight zone between the wars in Europe. It's actually in Scotland, a beautiful house on a loch. Directed by my dear friend Hugh Hudson, who did Chariots of Fire.
Q: Let's talk about "reel violence."
A: I think one has a moral responsibility to one's fellow human beings. But I am not a great believer that violence begets violence. What's more harmful is seeing a sort of insidious television show for children that purports to be morally sound, where the "good" sheriff comes in and kills 12 people. I think it's very, very rare that people see a movie and want to go out and copy it. Films mirror what's happening in society, not the other way around.
Q: Do you have any advice for people planning a film career?
A: Don't. Stay away if you've got any sense, with the proviso that anybody that really wants to do it will do it regardless of what I say. And I think you have to have an almost blinkered obsession with wanting to do it, to make it.
Q: What do you love most about being an actor?
A: I still get tremendous joy out of it. If I didn't, I'd give it up tomorrow. It's a very Brechtian thing because it means I'm really enjoying myself, playing this part, but you're going to believe me anyway. That is what I always try to achieve.
Q: Any other comments?
A: I just hope people come out and support a new venture in Ojai. If we're going to have a Film Festival, let's do it properly. Let's really do it.
© 2000 OVN
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