Sitting down to talk with John Malkovich is like listening to a deceivingly interesting lecture from a sharp professor.

Pensive, enthralling and almost taciturn in his reluctance to reveal much about himself or the topic at hand, he revealed enough to paint a clear picture of his naturally existentialist leaning. He is what he is.

No, he’s not Popeye.

Actually, he’s much like you or me. Malkovich is more comfortable in his position and success than most would think for a denizen of Hollywood. His ego and intelligence were in check, even under the respectable scrutiny of the press.

“(Movie) projects are more of a nightmare,” Malkovich said casually when asked what his “dream project” might be.

He is just in love with storytelling. Whether in theater or movies, he is visibly driven to perform. Almost to the extent that he could be easily pictured doing un-funded street theater to stoke his own passion.Luckily, Malkovich is well funded. His directorial debut, “The Dancer Upstairs,” came in on a budget of just over $4 million and was shot in about nine weeks in Europe and South America.

He put the same kind of care into creating this film as he puts into his acting.

“I worked with Javier (Bardem) every night for a month to go over exactly who this person was and how he viewed the world,” Malkovich said. “What (in the script) we could get rid of and what we could not. We worked until we were completely on the same page.”

He worked with the supporting actors in a similar fashion and brought them all together for several weeks of rehearsal.

Despite the eight years it took to bring the novel to the screen, directing has the feel of a new focus for him. His vision is refined enough that, even though he has directed often for the stage, his first directorial effort feels like the work of an already great director.

“On film, you are concerned with what appears to be,” he said, defining the difference between film and the stage. “It does not have the same kind of life (as the stage). Directing for the theater is what I call describing the playing field…outlining the rules of the game.

The actors have to play. It is a living thing only for that night, and each night the actors have a different aura, a different energy.” Expecting nothing and everything from a director, he understands that a director must let actors do their job.

“I have a pretty refined notion of what is a waste of time; what irritates people; and what makes them excited to come to work. (A director must) assure actors that they should feel confident to do their job,” he said. “A director must then ask himself, ‘Do I have what I need in these few seconds of film?’ It doesn’t matter at all if they can do the performance tomorrow. They’ll never do it again.”

“(A director) can tell me everything or nothing,” he said. “They can scream or shout. They can be incredibly collaborative, which is my preference. That a director demands a lot, demands collaboration…and looks for my influence, help, opinion and effort is thrilling. For some (directors), the idea of collaboration would give them rectal cancer.”

Malkovich hopes to bring another novel about South America to the screen for his next directing project.

“That the story is set in South America is purely coincidence. Considering the time and effort it took to bring this to the screen, it is anyone’s guess when or if this (next project) will even make it out of pre-production.”

When questioned about his comfort level of doing blockbuster films in the studio system that has embraced him, he was coy.

“I am comfortable almost anywhere…I don’t have rage against it. I don’t desire to control it or change the world. That is that system. That’s how it has come up. That is how it is. That is how it runs. One can like it or dislike it. You’re not going to change it. You’re certainly not going to change it as long as people go to see stupid films. That’s not your problem. That’s not my problem. I don’t go to see stupid films.”

For those who have the same aversion to the banal, the attraction to Malkovich and his work is undeniable. His future efforts behind the camera are sure to provoke the thought and intelligence he craves if they meet the high standard he set for himself in this first effort.