Catherine Keener         Cameron Diaz  

stars of Being John Malkovich

Part 2: In which we get to the bottom of the most twisted concept of a menage a trois (which, technically, it isn't) we've ever seen on screen. If you've seen the film, Being John Malkovich, you already know that Lottie and Maxine relate in a way that makes Lottie's husband Craig insanely jealous.

Diaz and Keener both address specific plot elements, so the read may not make much sense unless you run down to the local 'plex and shell out a couple of bucks. As Cranky put it in his review, BJM is like nothing you've ever seen, or even conceived in your wildest film fantasy dreams. It's a great film. Now go. We'll still be here when you get back . . .

CrankyCritic: What was it about Maxine that interested Lottie?
Cameron Diaz: We're going to be very honest with you guys. You may not believe us, but, we never thought about the sexuality of these characters; whether or not they were gay, or about the sex. That was never a discussion.
Catherine Keener: The story is that these people fall in love. If the story was about two women who embarked on a sexual relationship for the first time, and what that was like, then we would have thought a lot more about that. But it's just that Lottie, who is Craig's wife, fell in love with Maxine, Craig's co-worker who just wanted to manipulate everybody; we were just tracking something different. Then it became a love story and it was an emotional relationship. I don't know about Lottie, because if you could physically feel what Malkovich was feeling physically, then when Malkovich was having sex with Maxine, you could feel the physicality. Whereas Maxine was just feeling Malkovich physically. Lottie was feeling Malkovich emotionally and physically.
CrankyCritic: My head hurts
Catherine Keener: Yeah!
Cameron Diaz: That was the completion for the two of them. It was two people looking for the balance to their person. And they found that. Lottie had always been dedicated and devoted to the things that she loved. She understood the need to give over her heart but she was away from the physical passion of that. Maxine had never given herself over and would never let anyone else inside, but here she was giving herself emotionally over to somebody. The beautiful thing is the ending, which we don't want to give away.

CrankyCritic: Let's bottom line this, Diaz. Is it a lesbian thing if Lottie is in John body while John is having sex with Maxine, but Maxine knows John is posessed by Lottie?
Cameron Diaz: I don't know what it is. [laughs]
Catherine Keener: I think there's going to be a philosophy student who will make this his or her thesis.
Cameron Diaz: I think that this is the brilliance of [scriptwriter] Charlie Kaufman and he's too modest to say anything about it. There's such a complexity to this script. If we could have had these discussions about the script a year ago, would it be any better of a film? Would we have been able to bring anything more to it? I don't know. It shows how well thought out it was for Charlie that we were able, with no information, to bring these characters to life and to have it happen.
Catherine Keener: And that you understand the story!
Cameron Diaz: Exactly! [laughs]

NEXT whose head would they jump into?>>>>