How legend Malcolm McDowell ended up on ‘Son of a Critch’

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Malcolm McDowell made quite an entrance when the new CBC sitcom “Son of a Critch” premiered earlier this month.

His character “Pops” shares a room with his 11-year-old grandson Mark (played by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth). The old man gets up first, rinses the sleep out of his eyes and, as he does every morning, moons the kid.

There was no butt double, confirms the 78-year-old on a Zoom call from his home in Los Angeles. “I’m afraid that is all me.”

McDowell, of course, has been caught with his pants down before. Most notably in his breakthrough feature film, Lindsay Anderson’s “If….” (1968) but also in the notorious Roman orgy epic “Caligula” (1979). He teamed with Anderson on two other films, including “O Lucky Man!” (1973), and became a mascara- wearing icon in director Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 feature “A Clockwork Orange.”

His acting career has spanned over 50 years. Which leads to the question “Son of a Critch” co-creator Mark Critch says he gets asked all the time: how did you get Malcolm McDowell to be in your sitcom?

The simple answer is he reached out and asked. Critch, who has mocked the high and mighty on “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” for 18 seasons, wrote and published “Son of a Critch” as a memoir in 2018. He then fashioned a series out of it with friend and showrunner Tim McAuliffe (“The Office,” “MacGruber”). A pilot script and a copy of the book were sent to McDowell’s representatives.

McDowell read both, called his manager and said, “Make it work.”

“I just love the writing; it’s funny and it’s heartfelt too and that’s a difficult line to walk,” said McDowell, who had no prior awareness of Critch or “22 Minutes.”

“He’s sort of a Canadian secret, a little bit, but he won’t be after this,” declared the actor.

The series was an instant hit for CBC, opening earlier this month with 948,000 viewers. Shot entirely in St. John’s, N.L., it is set in the mid-’80s as young Mark Critch enters his wonder years as a middle school misfit.

McDowell took an instant shine to his young co-star and fellow Englishman Ainsworth. Asked if he has been mentoring the kid, McDowell insists it has been the other way around.

“There are no better actors than children,” he said. “Plus he knows his lines and everybody else’s lines too because he’s got a good memory — unlike certain actors he’ll be working with.”

Critch, who plays his own father on the series, says he was in awe of McDowell and Ainsworth. “One 12 and the other 78. Both peers, chatting about the Liverpool Football Club between takes and then when they hit the set: magic.”

As McDowell pointed out, this isn’t the kid’s “first rodeo.” Ainsworth starred in Netflix’s “The Haunting of Bly Manor” (2020) and can be heard opposite Tom Hanks in Disney’s upcoming animated remake of “Pinocchio.”

McDowell is a pretty good judge of actors, having played on stage and screen with some of the biggest stars of the 20th century, including three “Sirs,” Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. He partied, hard, with several other actors, including Peter O’Toole, Peter Sellers and Robert Mitchum.

“I had the same agent as Peter Sellers, Michael Caine and Sean Connery,” begins one story set in swingin’ London.

They were all invited to a birthday dinner. McDowell, who brought actress-model Lynne Frederick as his date, found himself seated next to Sellers.

For most of the meal, McDowell said, Sellers would “sit there with his head on the table, not eating, not reacting, just out of it. You hoped that by the time the dessert came around, he would too.”

Sellers did tell McDowell one thing: “You know Malcolm, there are 40 gorgeous women at this party, and one of them will be poison for me and I’ll walk straight up and ask her to marry me.”

That person turned out to be Frederick, who became Sellers’ widow in 1980.

The party was upended when a guest at the other end of the table screamed that her diamond earring was missing. “Suddenly,” said McDowell, “Peter came to and did 20 minutes as Clouseau (the inspector from the ‘Pink Panther’ movies).

“I looked over at Michael Caine and he was literally crying he was laughing so hard. I thought to myself, ‘Good God, this was probably what it was like watching Charlie Chaplin.’”

As McDowell says, “an actor’s life is hills and valleys” and his has been no exception. He admits there were times he and his peers were “very naughty boys.”

He names names, including one great friend in the early ’70s, “M*A*S*H” director Robert Altman.

They were “doing lots of dope and lots of great booze and going to great restaurants in London,” he says. “We just laughed and laughed and the next minute the dawn is coming up and you’ve got to find your way home.”

McDowell says he doesn’t miss those days, but “I’m thrilled that I had the experience. You can’t keep living like that, best just to remember the times.”

The actor has been married three times. He has two adult children, including director Charlie McDowell, 40, with second wife Mary Steenburgen. McDowell’s daughter-in-law Lily Collins is the star of Emily in Paris. He and third wife Kelley, an architectural designer, have been married for over 30 years and have three children, ages 17, 14 and 12.

In recent years, McDowell has played an aging symphony conductor in the Amazon Prime Video series Mozart in the Jungle as well as Rupert Murdoch in the 2019 movie “Bombshell.”

I’m extremely fortunate to be working at my age, you know, I’m still being asked probably to do more now than even in my 20s.”

That is not an idle boast; McDowell has a dozen projects listed on IMDb for 2022 and beyond. One is “Moving On” a movie he just shot with two actresses he adores, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. He is the kid in that cast with the “Grace and Frankie” stars both in their 80s.

McDowell and Fonda never acted together before. Both made a big impact in 1968, he in “If….” and she in “Barbarella.”

Fifty-four years later, he’s making a splash in Canada. He was in Newfoundland taking direction from Jay Baruchel on the set of “Son of a Critch.” Baruchel asked for one more take on a scene. McDowell gently pushed back with, “OK, Stanley” — a pointed reference to take-happy movie legend Kubrick.

“Just that name reminded us of the weight of the man,” said Critch. “Jay and I started giggling like kids. ‘Holy crap! That’s Malcolm McDowell!’”

Correction — Jan. 24, 2022: This article was edited to correct that “The Haunting of Bly Manor” was a series that appeared on Netflix, not HBO. As well, Malcolm McDowell plays the role of Mark Critches’ grandfather, not uncle, in the series “Son of a Critch.”

“Son of a Critch” airs Tuesday nights at 8:30 p.m. on CBC and streams on CBC Gem. To hear more from McDowell, including a few stories not appropriate for a family newspaper, listen to him in conversation at brioux.tv: the podcast.
Bill Brioux is a freelance writer. Follow him on Twitter: @BillBriouxTV

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