As a man of two different times, Dr. Tolian Soran may be the greatest antagonist
the Star Trek
Universe has ever known. Not only does he face two Captains of the
Starship Enterprise in deadly confrontations, but for a time, Soran wins.
And who better to play this enigmatic obsessive, this villain without
parallel, but an actual old friend of Patrick Stewart's? Prolific British actor
Malcolm McDowell - who had first worked with Stewart in several Royal
Shakespeare Company theatrical productions almost 30 years ago - essays the
role. And, as is McDowell's custom, he plays the villainous Soran for all he's
worth.
McDowell is no stranger to villainy or for that matter, science fiction. He
was the brutal Alex of A Clockwork Orange, the nasty British mercenary in charge
of Blue Thunder and the feline killer from Cat People (1982). But he has also
been a hero, most notably portraying the time-traveling H.G. Wells who battles a
nefarious Jack the Ripper (fellow RSC veteran and Stewart friend David Warner)
in the classic Time after Time (1979).
"Every time you do a film, you have the capability to believe it's the
greatest thing that you've ever done," McDowell says, noting that he
doesn't have a favorite role or believe he's typecast as a villain. "Every
film has its little reasons why you love it, even the dumb films. And I've done
some real clunkers. But I don't regret anything I've done. I never regret
anything, because having the capacity to fail is very important. That's how you
grow, it keeps your feet on the ground."
The 50-year old actor's first job was not on stage, or in front of a camera,
but in his father's pub in Leeds, England, serving drinks. He then became a
traveling salesman for a coffee company. Determined to pursue acting, McDowell
took classes and, after months of hard work, was accepted by the Isle of Wight
Repertory Company.
Then, McDowell became a member of the famed Royal Shakespeare Company (where
he met both Stewart and Warner) and began appearing on British television. His
first movie role was in 1967's Poor Cow, starring Terence Stamp.
Director Lindsay Anderson noted McDowell's abrasive charisma and chose him to
play Mick, the lead in If...(1968), a bizarre tale of the student's revolt at a
British boarding school. The association between actor and director led to two
further sequels in what is sometimes termed the "Mick Trilogy": O
Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.
Between If... and O Lucky Man!, McDowell appeared with Robert Shaw in Figures
in a Landscape, The Raging Moon and, eventually in 1971, in Stanley Kubrick's
provocative adaptation of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. The character of
young, amoral, ultraviolent Alex brought worldwide fame to McDowell, and turned
him into one of the leading stars of the British cinema almost overnight.
Other films followed: Richard Lester's Royal
Flash, Voyage of the Damned and
Aces High. In 1979, taking on real villainy, McDowell etched a memorable
portrait of Nazism in The Passage. "That movie contained some of the best
work I've ever done," he announces. "I managed to pack into a dozen
scenes the whole period of Nazi tyranny in a convincingly evil way."
In Time after Time, as the gentle and bemused Victorian H.G. Wells,
McDowell's refined, upper class accent was perfect. "I used to talk like
The Beatles," says the actor, demonstrating his abilities by repeatedly
changing accents in mid-conversation. "But now I'm like a chameleon. I
drive down the M1 (British motorway) and my accent changes depending on where I
am. If I'm in London, I'll speak Cockney. In Cross Creek, I played the great
editor, Maxwell Perkins with an American accent. The point is to make people
believe you. How you do that is up to you."
McDowell has made moviegoers believe him as all sorts of other characters in
such films as Get Crazy, Arthur the King, Sunset and the upcoming Tank Girl.
Teaming on stage with Lindsay Anderson for the director's off-Broadway restaging
of John Osbourne's Look Back in Anger was a personal highlight. "It was a
kind of crossroads for me as an actor," McDowell explains. "At the end
of the play, the whole audience was in tears. I could hear them sobbing, and
that gave me an unbelievable thrill!
"I've got a long way to go. I've got at least 20 more years and I
haven't done my best work yet, by far. I've always tried to base my career on
longevity, rather than on a flash in the pan, because, at the beginning, that's
what happened to me. I was a big success in three films in a row, and then the
British film industry collapsed overnight!"
After all these years, time spent both in and out of the news, the actor has
a philosophical view of critics and box-office success. The reception accorded
him as Dr. Soran in Star Trek Generations just doesn't bother him.
"I've done my work the best I could, and if you don't like it,
tough," Malcolm McDowell says. "I made up my mind not to read reviews.
Ever since I did that, I've had some great reviews, and I can't read them, which
is unfortunate! But I felt great, because I don't get emotionally involved in a
film anymore. I'm an actor - and what I do is up on the stage or on the screen -
and it's the best work I can do."
© Starlog Generations Magazine 1994
Visit the authors at www.lofficier.com
Archived by permission 2001-08 Alex D. Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net