Joel Kinnaman filmed a 17 page monologue for Terence Malick’s Knight of Cups

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Working on a Terence Malick movie means a lot of things. Firstly, it means you get to work with one of the most unique directors in the world. Secondly, it means your part may never be seen. Malick is notorious for excising entire performances from his films, some major characters played by talented A-list actors. You rarely see a director’s cut of these scenes, either, as what Malick releases tends to become his one and only cut.

During press for the new version of ROBOCOP opening this Friday, star Joel Kinnaman was asked by Collider about his recent work for Malick on his upcoming film, KNIGHT OF CUPS. Kinnaman was excited about the performance, but didn’t seem to know much else about the mysterious project.

“I shot one day on KNIGHT OF CUPS, and I had a 17-page monologue. Christian Bale, who I was playing opposite who had a lot of lines that would lead me into the next three pages, he hadn’t seen his pages. So when we started shooting, he’d just walk off, and I’d be chasing him saying all this stuff, when he was actually the one who was supposed to be interested, and that’s the reason that I was talking.

And then into page nine of my monologue, I’d turn around and see Terry like a 150 yards away shooting some pink dog running around. It was indeed a very interesting experience. I have no idea what that film is.”

Seventeen pages is one hell of a long monologue, especially for someone only filming a single day on a movie. Oddly, this sounds exactly like every Malick story we hear, including how he cut several actors from his last film, TO THE WONDER. I hope we actually get to see KNIGHT OF CUPS some day as it seems to have been in production forever. It was shooting back to back with another, untitled Malick film, also starring Christian Bale, which is slated for release this year. KNIGHT OF CUPS is scheduled to hit sometime in 2015.