The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance
John Malkovich as Teddy KGB
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:19Read transcript
- The category is loaded for this movie: John Malkovich as Teddy KGB, Famke Jansen (as transcribed), John Turturro as Knish, Martin Landau with only three scenes who has to be mentioned, and the actor who played Grandma (as transcribed), Michael Rispoli, saved for the Joey Pants Award.
- Both agree there is only one answer, 'pay this man his fucking money', KGB: he is in the opening and closing scenes, maybe three in all, and his NBA box score is 12 minutes with 35 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots.
- Famke Jansen (as transcribed) gets a shout-out and a case that she should have been Joe with another Russian character invented; Knish should not be overlooked either, with some of the greatest lines, representing lifetime grinders, based on a real man named Joel Bagels (as transcribed) whom Koppelman and Levine wrote about in 2014, whose real-life line was 'women are the rake'.
- The sauna confrontation where Knish refuses Mike McD the money is loved and the clip is played: two grand buys a day, Knish will not chase cards or pipe dreams of winning the World Series on ESPN because he owes rent, alimony and child support and his kids eat, offering calls and a place to stay instead.
- Knish is almost not a heat check because he is in too many scenes, whereas Malkovich is in two or two and a half, the ultimate Deion Weirder (as transcribed) and a fucking heat check.