John Malkovich cancelled his planned 13 April appearance in Tel Aviv after a PR company attributed words to him that he said were never his. The 72-year-old actor was due to perform in The Music Critic at Charles Bronfman Auditorium. He walked away after the printed quote crossed a line he would not accept.
5 September and 8 September
A press release on 5 September quoted him as saying he was “thrilled to return to Israel” and was looking “forward to meeting the warm Israeli audience once again, to whom I feel a strong closeness and solidarity.” On 8 September, he said a PR company hired by the Israeli promoter drafted the wording, but he never made the statements and was not consulted before they were printed.
He also said the phrases were not approved by him, did not reflect his feelings, and were “unacceptable and untenable.” For a touring production, that is not a small correction. It turns a scheduled appearance into a reputational dispute over who controls an artist’s public voice and how much weight a quote carries once it is sent out as copy.
The Music Critic in Tel Aviv
The show at Charles Bronfman Auditorium was supposed to place Malkovich inside The Music Critic, the work associated with Aleksey Igudesman. Instead, the public explanation became the misattributed solidarity statement, not the performance itself. The cancellation now leaves the Tel Aviv booking without its central draw.
The PR firm apologized for incorrectly attributing the quotes to him, and it said Mr Malkovich did not make, provide, authorise or approve the statement, and that it was not approved by his representatives. Malkovich said his appearance in any country does not amount to approval of that country’s policies, actions or leaders, and that his appearances would not imply solidarity with any political cause, the killing of innocents, acts of terrorism or any other kind of barbarity.
Israel 2013
His last visit to Israel was in 2013, when he appeared on stage in The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer. Five years before that, he was guest of honour at the Jerusalem film festival. He has also said, in 2011, that he was not a political person, lacked an ideology and had not voted since 1972.
The practical result is simple: the 13 April Tel Aviv performance is off, and the public message around it now belongs to the correction, not the original release. Whether The Music Critic will still be performed in Tel Aviv without John Malkovich is the open point that matters most to anyone tracking the booking.
