John Malkovich: “It’s not easy to speak English with a French accent”

The phlegmatic American actor recounts his time in The New Look, the new prestige series from Apple TV+ and talks to us about his relationship with France and fashion.

He is Lucien Lelong. In The New Lookthe new prestige series from Apple TV+ (also broadcast in France on Canal+), John Malkovich puts himself in the shoes of the famous couturier who discovered Christian Dior. Leaving his workshop open during the Second World War, Lelong agreed to sell to the Nazis, crushed by the moral dilemma of the Occupation. A luxurious role in costumes, in the streets of Paris, for the 70-year-old American actor, who confides in Première.

In The New Look, you play a Frenchman but in English and with a French accent. How was this choice presented to you?
John Malkovich : A few months before filming the series, I was already filming in France and in French, for the film Totally Burnt! There, it’s true that I do a sort of French accent, but it’s not really a French accent after all. It only has the flavor of a French accent. I think they wanted that, because most of the actors in the show are French and their English levels were very hit or miss. So I think the idea was to homogenize the accents.

What is it like to shoot in English with a French accent?
It’s okay, I understand why we find ourselves doing this. But it’s true that it’s not easy to speak English with a French accent but without French sounds. I had already done it in the past, for a slightly stupid film called Johnny English. And for a detective series that replayed the murders of Agatha Christie in a dark way. I played a version of Hercule Poirot which was not at all appreciated by the fans, with an accent which displeased a lot of people…

What is your relationship to France today?
I have a very special relationship with your country. Within a month I will return to my wine estate in Provence (in the village of Lacoste in Vaucluse). I still have a house in France where I go whenever I get the chance. Unfortunately, I can’t go there often, because I’m still working a lot. And before The New LookFor Completely burnt out, the film by Gilles Legardinier with Fanny Ardant, I had a great time in Brittany. I was staying in a small village in Ille-et-Vilaine, a few kilometers from the plateau. It was adorable.

You are a big fan of fashion, you even created a clothing line (“Technobohemian”). Did this help you with The New Look ?
Not so much actually. This series doesn’t really have much to do with fashion. It is above all a backdrop, to talk about the personal lives of Coco Chanel and Christian Dior. My character, Lucien Lelong, was not a great designer himself, but he unearthed a large number of talents, whether Dior, but also Balmain or Balenciaga, whom he trained and supervised. Afterwards, the series mainly focuses on the moral dilemmas of the fashion business under Nazi occupation.