John Malkovich is trading in the silver screen for silkscreen.
The legendary actor revealed in an advertisement on Tuesday that he is trying to make it as a clothing designer. The three-minute advertisement touches on his passion, as well as the naysayers who tell him that this is all just a pipe dream.
"John, I heard about this little project you're trying," a voice says in a voicemail message. "Come on, we have movies to make. I'm in L.A. Call me back."
He knows how this all looks.
"Sometimes if you're known for one thing, then it's hard for people…," he tells a friend in one scene, seemingly speaking about his new venture. The friend then asks John if he'll be taken seriously, to which he says, "Everything I ever did was a gamble … Now I have to justify my life to them? I don't really care how they take me. They can take me as I am or not at all."
Throughout the ad, he is seen sketching clothing designs and working with tailors. Towards the end, a scene shows him debuting his clothes at a fashion show.
"I'm always the figure in someone else's dream," he can be heard saying. "I'd really rather sometimes make my own figures and make my own dreams. I never made my life about what ever people thought of me or what I should do or what I shouldn't do."
At the end of the ad for Squarespace, it encourages people to visit the website JohnMalkovich.com. It also called him a "fashion designer."
This isn't the first time that his interest in clothing has made news. He debuted his Technobohemian line at New York Fashion Week in 2010.
"Since childhood, John has had an interest in clothes and fashion photography. He even studied costuming at university and, to this day, does costume design for theater," his website says. "He walked the Comme des Garçons runway when no actor would and was featured in campaigns for Prada, Antonio Miro, and Armani, among others.
"John wrote and directed fashion films for English designer Bella Freud and wrote the 'Christian Louboutin' book foreword," it continues. "He created fabric for Liberty of London, did a design collaboration with Bailey Hats, designed clothes for Pirelli, and partnered with French watchmaker Richard Mille."