Malcolm McDowell shot to fame in 1971 when he starred in Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction classic A Clockwork Orange.
But the 82-year-old actor told Page Six in a recent exclusive interview that it was a dangerous time.
“The truth is, I don’t think I handled it particularly well,” he said. “Actually, it scared me a little bit.”
McDowell added that she didn’t really enjoy it.
“Everybody’s pulling you,” he explained. “They don’t really allow you to just have fun.”
Instead, he was flooded with offers and pressured to take on new roles because of the money and the people he would work with.
When McDowell said, “The script is so bad,” he said, “Well, who cares?”
One film the actor still regrets not appearing in is Alfred Hitchcock’s last film, 1972’s “Frenzy,” despite its “total crap” script.
“Looking back now, I should have done that movie,” he confessed. “I mean, to work with him.”
“There were some things that really needed to be done,” he continued. “But I think the decisions I made about my career back then were because I knew what I was capable of, what my limits were, and I knew I wasn’t going to be successful in certain areas.”
McDowell admitted that he was “offered a lot of roles because I was the star of the month.”
“Right now it’s very hot, but then it’ll get cooler.”
Despite never reaching that level of fame again, McDowell went on to have an enviable career that included numerous film and television roles, including Star Trek Generations, Entourage, Mozart in the Jungle, and the role of Dr. Samuel Loomis in the 2007 Halloween remake and 2009 sequel Halloween II.
His latest work is the horror film “Psycho Killer,” about a police officer who arrests a serial killer known as the “Devil Slasher” who murdered the husband of a state trooper.
McDowell has a refreshingly clear view of his career, which has moved into roles and supporting roles.
“You don’t have to worry about what your persona is,” he said. “Just do it, do your job as honestly as you can, and move on. And, you know, I’ve played a very wide range of roles.”
“But I think I’ve always enjoyed what I do.”
