John Malkovich bails on Israel performance following backlash, blames 'fake quotes'

John Malkovich has cancelled a planned visit to Israel amid online backlash, with the Hollywood actor blaming fabricated quotes attributed to him in Israeli media.

The 72-year-old actor had planned to travel to Tel Aviv in April 2027 for a one-off performance of The Music Critic, a satirical stage show that has toured dozens of countries around the world since 2021.

But in a statement on Tuesday, Malkovich announced he would no longer travel to the country after he was quoted praising Israel in local media.

An article published by The Jerusalem Post over the weekend quoted the actor as saying he was "thrilled to return to Israel" and expressing "strong closeness and solidarity" with Israeli people.

The announcement was met with backlash online, where social media users slammed the Oscar-winning actor's decision to travel to the country.

"I 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 'The Music Critic,'" Malkovich said in a statement to Hollywood media.

"A 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," he continued.

"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."

Malkovich has visited Israel several times during his decades-long career, once in 2008 as a guest of honour at the Jerusalem Film Festival and again in 2013 to perform The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer at the Eilat International Chamber Music Festival and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

The visit had looked to be a rare show of public support for Israel from a major figure in Hollywood, where a cultural boycott has gathered pace in response to the genocide in Gaza and escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.

Thousands of actors, directors and film workers in 2025 vowed to cut ties with the Israeli film industry, which the Film Workers for Palestine said was "implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people".