Back in August, it was revealed that famed and prolific actor Malcolm McDowell would be making an appearance in two episodes of the upcoming fourth season of Community (along with a couple of other notable guest stars).
We had the chance to speak with the actor recently about his latest horror offering, Silent Night (stay tuned for that interview), at which time we were able to get the scoop on his Community stint as well, as he gave some pretty spoilery info on what to expect.
McDowell, who is best known for his portrayal of the violently disturbed antihero Alex in director Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, will join the Greendale Human Beings as what the actor describes as a “very arrogant English History professor”, Professor Cornwallis.
“He shows up in the first episode and says, ‘I know what you’re all thinking,’” McDowell explained. “Of course, they don’t really think anything, do they? They’re completely brain-dead as far as I can tell. But he says, ‘I know what you’re thinking and the answer is indeed, yes, I am a direct descendent of Sir Charles Cornwallis, who surrendered the British troops at Charlestown.’ And that’s my introduction to them. And then he gives assignments and they all get Fs, of course. And then on the next one, they actually kidnap him.”
When I asked the purpose of the kidnapping, McDowell responded that Chang (Ken Jeong) -- who he referred to as "brainless" -- "has got some agenda which I don’t quite understand. I’ve failed them all and so he’s tied me up.”
Adding a bit more of the bizarre to what we imagine will already be a surreal storyline, McDowell suffered a detached retina between production on the first and second episodes. “I couldn’t stand the light so I have to wear sunglasses for the entire second episode,” he says. “And I don’t think that’s ever explained.”
Community is a show that makes liberal use of pop culture references and a kidnapping seems like an ideal set-up to call back to the iconic “reprogramming” sequence in A Clockwork Orange (maybe even tie in the damaged eye without actually recreating the scene, of course). Alas, as far as McDowell knows, there will be no shout-outs to some of his more iconic film roles in the episode.
Earlier in our interview McDowell had laughingly noted that the only time he’s not the villain of the piece is in horror films. When I pointed out that it seemed like he was the good guy on Community as well, he replied: “Yes, well, you find out that he isn’t who he seems to be.”
He wouldn’t say whether that was ultimately a good or bad thing, though. Hmmmm.
Despite his joking slams on the characters, McDowell said the tone and mood on the set was one of great fun.
“I mostly worked with Joel [McHale],” he says. “I love Joel, he’s amazing. But I worked with them all. I love them all, there hilarious. Oh my God they made me laugh. They’re all so bloody funny! All wonderful, absolutely terrific.”
McDowell believes that we’ll have the opportunity to see the kidnapping mayhem for ourselves at around the midpoint of the season.
Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
Community: Season 4 premieres on NBC on Thursday, February 7 at 8pm PST.
Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @JRothC and IGN at Roth-IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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