Despite appearing in more than 90 films and having an estimated net worth of $50 million, John Malkovich has admitted he lost all of his life savings a decade ago.
In a profile with the Guardian, the legendary actor said that in 2008, he was defrauded and lost everything.
“Our then business manager had invested pretty much everything we’d ever made with somebody called Bernie Madoff.”
Madoff defrauded thousands of investors out of an estimated $64.8 billion and was given a 150-year jail sentence in 2009.
“Everything I’d ever made was gone.”
While he can’t put a price tag on exactly how much he lost, the 66-year-old said it didn’t matter that much, and he simply made changes to the way he lived and spent his money.
“I had to do more work that paid for a number of years, and work all the time. And I stopped paying for everything.
“I just stopped paying for friends and family for a time. And we used to spend a lot of money producing movies that lost quite a lot of money. That stopped.”
But, knowing how much other people had it worse put the experience into perspective for him.
“After a couple or three days, you go: ‘You’re lucky to be alive, you’re lucky to have a job.’ Almost no one has money in the banks. I read somewhere that a huge percentage of Americans wouldn’t have $400 to put between their hands in an emergency.”
And the son of two journalists, Malkovich grew up in a fairly privileged family in small-town middle America — but has said he was the subject of beatings from both his father and older brother.
“You crossed the line and you got a beating. That was very common at that time. Sure, I had a lot of violence growing up, but so what?”
In the post #MeToo era, many long-standing film stars are asked about their opinion on the subject, but the actor gave a surprisingly open response — that he had actually experienced unwanted advances when he was starting his career.
“When I was young, I had a professor in the theatre department who made some advances that were unwanted. I was 19, he was in his 50s.”
“I just said it wasn’t my thing, sorry. It was someone I was fond of and I liked. So life went on. I did transfer schools, but not really because of that.
“The Weinstein situation is very different. It was transactional. It’s terrible for women, but it’s horrific also just for the idea of work.”He said it was too early to know whether the #MeToo movement has changed the culture of the film industry, but he hoped it was.
“It’s a terrible thing if somebody’s job depends on what sexual favour they will give in return for work.”
Asked if that was that the culture, the actor said: “Sure.”
