LEFT: Black wool two-button suit by DKNY ($595). Available through special order at Macy’s, 151 West 34th Street, 212-695-4400. Shirt by Boss Black ($95). Boss, the Shops at Columbus Circle, 10 Columbus Circle, 212-485-1900. Tie by Giorgio Armani ($140). Giorgio Armani, 760 Madison Avenue, 212-988-9191. Scarf by Richard James (price on request). Visit richardjames.co.uk. Mediterraeno Time stainless steel watch with pink gold and genuine acqualino strap by Breil Milano ($725). Breil Milano, 148 Spring Street, 212-925-1031. RIGHT: Three-piece suit by Boss Selection ($1,295). Boss, the Shops at Columbus Circle, 10 Columbus Circle, 212- 485-1900. White dress shirt ($345) and pure silk tie ($160), both by Ermenegildo Zegna. Ermenegildo Zegna, 663 Fifth Avenue, 212-421-4488. Ultrathin LUC XP watch in white gold by Chopard ($10,690). Chopard, 709 Madison Avenue, 212-223-2304.

John Malkovich has played everything from a sexy lecher to a deranged psychopath. But today the only character he’s playing is dad to his 18- year-old daughter, dropping her off at college for her freshman year.

It’s the most paternal of duties, and he’s taking it seriously. “We’re here with her, looking up the directions to Target—where the whole world shops!” he reports, making it easy to envision him happily hunting for dorm-room accessories and school supplies. He’s normal in an almost perverse way, and even friendly to strangers. As he takes a breath to go on, a student approaches.

“Are you John Malkovich?”

Malkovich politely confirms his suspicion.

“I was just wondering,” the guy continues. “Would you mind stopping in tomorrow? My dad is a pretty big fan of yours.”

“Oh! OK,” Malkovich says with a chuckle. “Absolutely.”

And so it goes. He is indeed John Malkovich. And even in the midst of utter normalcy, you can’t help but think through his sizable litany of quirky characters: The libidinous Vicomte Sébastien de Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons; the insane Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom in Con Air; the evil warrior Galbatorix in Eragon; the artist Gustav Klimt in Klimt; and (famously) himself, in 1999’s Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. Although he’s managed to sidestep a certain level of public scrutiny, the actor—arguably one of the finest of our time—has an idiosyncratic, occasionally controversial persona that renders him both endearing and mysterious. He’s built a career on delivering the goods, deftly transforming each role with a memorable performance. But make no mistake—he knows where he stands on set.

“I think you have to be careful as an actor, because it’s not your film— you’re just an actor in it,” he says. “There’s a lot of pressure. The director is in control of all this money and a crew of 30 or 50 or 200—it’s all that responsibility. I think of it as their film. And if they like to work quickly, let’s go quickly. If they like to do 200 takes, let’s do 200 takes.”

For Changeling, which opens this month, the reins were in the hands of director Clint Eastwood. A reunion of sorts for the two (they acted opposite each other in 1993’s In the Line of Fire), the film is based on the true story of a mother whose child disappears in 1920s Los Angeles, who becomes entangled in the scandal-ridden LAPD. Malkovich plays a preacher determined to restore some order to his city; Angelina Jolie plays the mother; and Eastwood runs the show. “He knows very much what he wants, and gets it done quickly and quietly without any fuss,” says Malkovich. “He’s also fun to be around.”

Judging by his other fall appearance—in Joel and Ethan Coen’s Burn After Reading—Malkovich has had more than a little fun of late. In the film he plays Osborne Cox, a fired CIA agent with a drinking problem who devolves from suit and tie to bathrobe and socks in record time. It’s vintage Coen brothers and quite funny, and Malkovich and the high-powered cast (including George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, and Tilda Swinton) gamely romp through the film’s dark comedy and bumbling twists of fate.

“They’re sort of the perfect pair for me,” Malkovich says of the Coens, with whom he hadn’t worked before. “I think they’re both very bright and very gifted.... They also have a great mixture of control and ease, which is really gratifying. I very much liked the script, so for me there wasn’t much of a decision to make. It was pretty much a no-brainer: a good script and great people to work with.”

Born in Benton, Illinois, Malkovich began acting and directing onstage in his early college days before joining the famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1976. He later won an Obie for his Off-Broadway performance in True West and an Emmy in 1985 for the TV version of Death of a Salesman (which aired a year after its Broadway revival, in which Malkovich appeared opposite Dustin Hoffman). His big-screen debut in 1984’s Places in the Heart earned him an Oscar nomination, kicking off a robust film career.

He began his production company, Mr. Mudd, in 1998 with producers Lianne Halfon and Russell Smith. Ghost World, starring Steve Buscemi, Scarlett Johansson, and Thora Birch, was the outfit’s first film. Other projects have included 2002’s The Dancer Upstairs (which Malkovich also directed and produced), and last year’s Juno, winner of an Academy Award for best original screenplay and a nomination for Best Picture. All in all, he’s chosen well. But the key to satisfying, successful, and, yes, lucrative projects doesn’t require a magical formula.

LEFT: Black wool two-button suit by DKNY ($595). Available through special order at Macy’s, 151 West 34th Street, 212-695-4400. Shirt by Giorgio Armani ($335). Giorgio Armani, 760 Madison Avenue, 212-988-9191. Tie and scarf, Malkovich’s own. RIGHT: Coat ($1,595) and silk tie ($130), both by Canali. Canali, 25 Broad Street, 212-842-8700. White dress shirt by Ermenegildo Zegna ($345). Ermenegildo Zegna, 663 Fifth Avenue, 212-421-4488. Gloves by Boss Selection ($157). Boss, the Shops at Columbus Circle, 10 Columbus Circle, 212-485-1900. Leather boots with silvertone hardware by Salvatore Ferragamo ($990). Salvatore Ferragamo, 655 Fifth Avenue, 212-759-3822.

“It’s too random and quixotic and it’s a kind of alchemy when a film is good,” Malkovich says. “You never know when that’s going to happen. A couple of times I’ve even been fooled into thinking—and I’ve done, I don’t know, 60, 70, 80 films, I don’t know how many—‘This will be really good.’ When, in fact, it comes out and you go, ‘Actually, it’s not really good.’ It has several things of interest in it, but it’s two hours long. Several things is not enough.”

Despite devoting time to so many films, Malkovich has seemingly struck a perfect balance between acting/directing and life with his family—wife Nicoletta Peyran, son Loewy, 16, and daughter Amandine, 18. He directed a play in Paris last year and brought it to Mexico City this year, and explains that as he’s watched his children grow up and spent time with his family, he’s done more stage directing than acting—and now even the Big Apple doesn’t have enough pull to lure him back for a major stint onstage.

“[New York] can be quite physically beautiful, physically stunning, and it can have fantastic energy,” he says. “But it can also be quite nasty, rude, and weirdly provincial. My feelings about it are fairly constant. I like to go there for a time, but it’s been a long time since I’ve felt like living there. It’s a big world, and I did that.”

Malkovich and his family now live a relatively low-key life, for the most part, outside of Boston. He’s spent a great deal of time in southern France, where he’s had a home for years, and he’s also an investor in a nightclub/restaurant in Lisbon, Portugal. World traveler? Perhaps. But in true Malkovichian style, even the simple act of vacationing has a tendency to veer from the status quo:

“I [took a cruise on the QE2] many years ago,” he recalls. “I mean, I really loved that—even though it happened to be one of the cruises that caught on fire.” [G]