‘A Clockwork Orange’ Star Malcolm McDowell Has “No Memory” Of Many Of His Films

Actor Malcolm McDowell has had several iconic roles, from Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange, to Caligula in Caligula, to Mick Travis in if…. and its two sequels. But the 77-year-old English actor has never stopped working throughout his 53-year career, and, lately, he has been in plenty of not-so-iconic roles. With over 300 productions under his belt—many of flops or obscure low-budget films—is it any surprise that he’s forgotten a few here and there?

“People stop me and say, ‘Oh, we loved you in blah-blah’ and I say, ‘Sorry, that wasn’t me,'” McDowell said in a recent profile for The Guardian. “And then they’ll show me on their phone or show me the DVD cover and sure enough, there I am. And I have no memory of doing it at all.”

That may sound worrying, but seriously, take a look at McDowell’s IMDB—the man never stops working! No role is too small for McDowell. There are big ones, too—this summer he’s starring in the B-movie drama The Big Ugly alongside Ron Perlman and Leven Rambin, and last year he appeared as Rupert Murdoch in the Oscar-nominated Bombshell—but at the same time, he’s doing voices for Scooby-Doo cartoons, narrating a parody movie about Bernie Sanders called Free Lunch Express, playing small parts on Star Wars Rebels, and roughly one million other things. Can you blame the guy for not remembering that he played the principal in Easy A, too?

Despite the lack of glamour these days, McDowell told The Guardian he’s still having a good time. “I still love it, otherwise I wouldn’t do it,” he said. “Maybe in my forties, I didn’t have a good time. People didn’t know what to do with me. I was a useful rebel in the 60s and 70s. But the Kubrick movie was overbearing. Everything was measured against A Clockwork Orange, which gets a little old. But that’s what happens when you work with giants.” He went on to say Kubrick was “too brutal” to form a close relationship with him.

McDowell said he had no interest in pursuing more ambitious projects. “I’m not going to seek them out,” he said. “If they offer me something, I’ll do it. But do I want to go parading around actively looking for work? No. Because I don’t have the ambition to be above the title, doing this, that and the other. I really don’t care. I’ve had an amazing run, an incredible career, when you take it all into account.”

Fair enough, Mr. McDowell. Fair enough.

Where to watch A Clockwork Orange