John Malkovich says a woman once broke into his home to give him a film script handwritten in blood

Actor also revealed he never understood why Being John Malkovich wasn’t instead Being Tom Cruise

John Malkovich has revealed that a woman once broke into his home to give him a film script handwritten in what appeared to be her blood.

The Con Air actor, who this week makes his Netflix debut in the Steve Carell comedy Space Force, did not specify when the incident occurred, but confirmed it did happen.

“I was in my yard in France and she handed me a script that was all written in what could have been red ink,” he told NME. “It was more like it was scrawled with… maybe a very sharp knitting needle?”

Malkovich said that the script was about a woman who murders a famous American actor, but that “it really wasn’t very good”.

“I read some of it,” he said. “I read enough to understand the plot, but it didn’t seem like one I wanted to finish reading really. It was quite terrifying at the time."

Malkovich also revealed in the interview that he was at first baffled by his 1999 film Being John Malkovich. The film, written by Charlie Kaufman, revolves about a man who discovers a portal into Malkovich’s brain.

“Why not ‘Being Tom Cruise’ I asked?” Malkovich recalled. “Charlie told me quite clearly that he had no desire to change it, and that [Spike Jonze] was going to direct, so I said OK. To be honest, I never actually thought that it would get made.

“I remember those years when it remained un-produced. Whenever I got to Hollywood for some press thing or whatever, invariably I’d be in some hotel lobby or in some restaurant or at some vintage lamp store, and somebody would come up to me and say, ‘Hey, why aren’t you making Being John Malkovich?’ Eventually we did it, and honestly I was just happy to be a part of it.”

Space Force, which arrives on Netflix today (29 May), stars Malkovich as one of a team of individuals tasked with launching the first intergalactic branch of the United States Armed Forces.