Malone Pictures New Role In Life Jazz Star Hopes To Take Act To Silver Screen
For 12 seasons, Karl Malone’s marquee role has been that of domination. He scripts the rules of play against opposing power forwards in the NBA. Now fast-forward to, say, 2001 or 2002. Imagine him using that on-the-court machismo as a 6-foot-9 John Wayne. Or Laurence Fishburne. Or Steven Seagal. Or Bruce Willis. When the “Mailman” stops delivering baskets for the Utah Jazz, he wants to deliver high-velocity adventure roles for Hollywood.
“Ever since I was a little boy,” the Mailman says from Salt Lake City, “I thought I would love to get into acting.” And you thought all Malone, well-known for his outdoorsman pursuits, wanted to do in his spare time was hunt and fish in the Rockies or ride his pickup trucks on his ranch in Arkansas. You know, a kind of black Grizzly Adams. This is the same guy whom Houston Rockets forward Charles Barkley calls “a black redneck.”
Yes, the 34-year-old brawny country guy from the Deep South surprised me, too, with this acting aspiration. Malone, who grew up in Summerfield, La., gets his next acting appearance as a guest star on the new sitcom, “The Tony Danza Show,” which premieres Sept. 24 on NBC. Malone taped the segment on Aug. 21-22 in Hollywood.
Situation comedies are fine for now, but once he retires from the NBA, Malone wants gusto and bravado as his credo. Mix a little bit of Superman (Christopher Reeve) with a touch of Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood), and you have the Mailman’s ideal portrayal on the silver screen.
“I want to play like a Green Beret, an action-packed movie,” said Malone, the NBA’s MVP this past season. “Rescuing hostages and stuff. Painting your face, having uour shirt off. Walking into a bar and looking for somebody. Dare somebody to mess with you.”
In other words, looking for bad guys. And kicking big butt on a motorcycle. “I want to ride on my Harley and play in a movie with ‘Bad to the Bone’ playing in the background,” he says. Malone owns four Harley-Davidsons - $35,000 per set of wheels.
“I can’t wait to see what happens with that,” says Malone’s stunning wife, Kay, a former Miss Idaho U.S.A. “He wants the action-packed movies. Maybe he will get to play with Arnold Schwarzenegger or something.”
Hey, the 260-pound Malone is no stranger to intense action, jockeying and jostling with the likes of such man-mountains as the Knicks’ Charles Oakley, the Bulls’ Dennis Rodman and Barkley. Just a matter of taking the heavy stuff to the Tinseltown set but maintaining his roots in the vastness of Utah. “I can adjust to anything,” Malone says. “You can drive a Chevy or Dodge in Hollywood. too. I would still drive my pickup in Hollywood.”
To Malone, the ride does not matter in a town brimming with Bentleys, Lamborghinis, Jaguars and Mercedeses; it’s about scripts and roles. Don’t worry about the wheels because it doesn’t matter when you save the day on the screen. Call him Rambo in short pants. But don’t call him just a basketball player on film. “I want more than just walking in a movie, dribbling a basketball, and saying, ‘Hi, I’m Karl Malone,’ ” the Mailman explains.
In fact, Malone says he has turned down roles because of that. He does not want to play himself all the time. He wants more than just to be everybody’s star basketball player on the set. “I’ve had a lot of other offers,” Malone says. “I’m a humongous fan of the show ‘Touched By An Angel.’ I could have been on that show. I could have been on ‘Hang Time,’ with Reggie Theus. But I would have had to play a basketball player. I want something more than that.”
On “The Tony Danza Show,” Danza plays a sports radio personality named Tony DiMeo, who is struggling with the demands of the media and parenting. DiMeo forbids his daughter, Tina (Majandra Delfino), from piercing her nose, but he changes his mind when she calls DiMeo at the radio station to further discuss the matter.
DiMeo hopes that by giving her the choice, she will decide to abandon the idea rather than rebel against her father’s wishes. The banter continues when DiMeo inadvertently opens the station’s radio lines, enabling surprised listeners to call in and offer their take on the matter.
And guess who is the studio guest during this father-daughter affair? Karl Malone, who offers some parental advice of his own.< The Mailman has two years remaining on his contract with the Jazz. But he wants to play two or three more seasons after that.
There are some roles he would not play.
“I don’t think I would necessarily play a gangster,” he says. “I don’t think I would play an athlete on drugs, no pimps, no criminals.
Malone he does not expect to perform in a movie with his longtime Jazz sidekick, guard John Stockton. They dash downcourt on fastbreaks and buy car dealerships together but don’t make movies as a team. “It’s not his thing,” Malone says. “We are different on that.”
MEMO: Cut in the Idaho edition.