{"id":610275,"date":"2026-09-09T03:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/610275\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T03:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:20:16","slug":"john-malkovich-drops-out-of-the-music-critic-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/610275\/","title":{"rendered":"John Malkovich Drops Out of ‘The Music Critic’ in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJohn Malkovich<\/a> has pulled out of a performance of \u201cThe Music Critic\u201d set to take place in Tel Aviv, Israel, after a press release falsely attributed quotes to the actor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was made aware of an article which appeared in The Hollywood Reporter (first published in The Jerusalem Post) announcing a date in Tel Aviv, Israel, for a performance of a piece called \u2018The Music Critic,\u2019 one of the numerous classical music collaborations and live theatre performances I have been touring in for nearly two decades and which I have performed in 47 countries at last count. The Tel Aviv date was meant to be one of several touring stops throughout Europe and the Middle East,\u201d Malkovich said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued: \u201cA PR company hired by the Israeli promoter drafted a quote for the article that was attributed to me, though I never made the statements that were quoted, nor was I consulted before they were printed. I did not utter these phrases, and they most certainly are not approved by me, nor do they reflect my feelings. The fact that they were printed as direct quotes from me is unacceptable and untenable. For this reason, I have decided I cannot participate in the Tel Aviv performance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a correction now posted to the initial story, The Jerusalem Post wrote that \u201cAlon Yurick, the show\u2019s Israeli producer, clarified that the original press release contained an incorrect quote resulting from a misunderstanding and apologized for the error.\u201d The Jerusalem Post has since removed Malkovich\u2019s fabricated quote.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his statement, the actor also noted that his appearance in a country \u201cdoes not constitute approval of said country\u2019s policies, nor actions, nor its elected or unelected leaders.\u201d \u201cMy appearances would also not condone nor mean that I am in supposed \u2018solidarity\u2019 with any particular political cause, nor with the killing of innocents, nor with any acts of terrorism, nor any other kind of barbarity,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore Malkovich decided to drop out, the performance was scheduled for April 13, 2027, at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium. \u201cThe Music Critic\u201d was created and conceived by violinist and composer Aleksey Igudesman.<\/p>\n

\n\tRead Malkovich\u2019s full statement here:<\/p>\n

\n\tI was made aware of an article which appeared in The Hollywood\u00a0Reporter (first published in The Jerusalem Post) announcing a date in Tel Aviv, Israel, for a performance of a piece called \u2018The Music Critic,\u2019 one of the numerous classical music collaborations and live theatre performances I have been touring in for nearly two decades and which I have performed in 47 countries at last count. The Tel Aviv date was meant to be one of several touring stops throughout Europe and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\n\tA PR company hired by the Israeli promoter drafted a quote for the article that was attributed to me, though I never made the statements that were quoted, nor was I consulted before they were printed. I did not utter these phrases, and they most certainly are not approved by me, nor do they reflect my feelings. The fact that they were printed as direct quotes from me is unacceptable and untenable. For this\u00a0reason, I have decided I cannot participate in the Tel Aviv performance.<\/p>\n

\n\tThroughout my long career, I\u2019ve been lucky to perform across a quite wide swath of the world\u2014 in countries with governments whose values or culture I do not share and in front of audiences of many differing faiths and ideologies. Traveling to places whose view of the world may not align with mine has given me a chance to observe and to listen and learn and to share my idea of what makes good storytelling and what makes beautiful music and how they can complement each other and illuminate the human condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMy appearance in any country, even my own, does not constitute approval of said country\u2019s policies, nor actions, nor its elected or unelected leaders. My appearances would also not condone nor mean that I am in supposed\u00a0\u201csolidarity\u201d\u00a0with any\u00a0particular political\u00a0cause, nor with the killing of innocents, nor with any acts of terrorism, nor any other kind of barbarity.\u00a0
Generally speaking, I\u00a0believe that we need more culture and more beauty in more places, not less. Art, at its best, reminds us that the exercise of our shared humanity can and should be a tool to bridge our conflicts and our griefs, our grievances and our sorrows, and that the exercise of artistic freedom is often the greatest form of\u00a0protest against\u00a0savagery. I look forward to continuing to exercise my artistic freedom, come what may. However, only playwrights, novelists and screenwriters can put words in my mouth, and even then, only in the service of storytelling, and\u00a0no one\u00a0else should think they can do that without my consent and without the resultant consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Malkovich has pulled out of a performance of \u201cThe Music Critic\u201d set to take place in Tel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,217807,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-610275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-john-malkovich","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}