John Malkovich Rejected Marvel Offers Because of Bad Deals: ‘If You’re Going to Hang From a Crane in Front of Green Screen for Six Months, Pay Me’ – Variety
By
Zack Sharf
Digital News Director
John Malkovich is set to make his Marvel debut as a mystery character in this summer’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” but it wasn’t the first Marvel role the Oscar nominee has been offered over the years. The actor revealed an interview with GQ magazine that he’s turned down a few Marvel offers in the past because the pay just wasn’t sufficient enough.
“The reason I didn’t do them had nothing to do with any artistic considerations whatsoever,” Malkovich said. “I didn’t like the deals they made, at all. These films are quite grueling to make… If you’re going to hang from a crane in front of a green screen for six months, pay me. You don’t want to pay me, it’s cool, but then I don’t want to do it, because I’d rather be onstage, or be directing a play, or doing something else.”
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What Malkovich was surprised to discover was that filming “The Fantastic Four” was “not that dissimilar to doing theater” because “you imagine a bunch of stuff that isn’t there and do your little play.” He told GQ that he took a role in the movie primarily because he wanted to work with director Matt Shakman again after 2014’s “Cut Bank.”
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A bearded Malkovich appeared briefly in the teaser trailer for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which debuted online earlier this month. Marvel fans have been speculating he may be playing Ivan Kragoff, a villain known as the Red Ghost who fights the Fantastic Four in the comics. Red Ghost is a Soviet scientist who replicates the team’s space accident and gains the ability to turn intangible. He also creates a team of Super Apes who have similar powers to the Fantastic Four.
“The Fantastic Four: The First Steps” opens in theaters July 25 from Disney and Marvel Studios.
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Source: https://variety.com/2025/film/news/john-malkovich-marvel-movies-bad-pay-fantastic-four-1236311544/
