John Malkovich: 'I don't need to be liked'. John Malkovich: 'I don't need to be liked'. John Malkovich: 'I don't need to be liked'. John Malkovich is speaking in a tone so low and languorous it seems deliberately pitched at a single, straining pair of ears. As an actor who has used his voice to great menacing effect, it now becomes lighter and more lilting, the more exercised he gets.