c.2013 New York Times News Service

NEW YORK — There are actors more handsome than John Malkovich, more alluring, more dissolute. But if a director needs someone to play a legendary libertine — or even a Lothario-esque version of Malkovich himself, as in “Being John Malkovich” — guess who gets the call?

A co-founder of the Steppenwolf Theater Company and a frequent presence on film and stage, Malkovich will play the lead in “The Giacomo Variations,” a music-theater piece combining Mozart arias with episodes from the life of the famed seducer Casanova, opening on Thursday at City Center. He will return to New York in July, revisiting one of his most beguiling film roles, the licentious Vicomte de Valmont, as he directs a young Parisian cast in a French-language version of “Dangerous Liaisons” for the Lincoln Center Festival.

Over a vegetarian lunch at Joe Allen’s in the theater district, Malkovich, dapper in a light gray suit, spoke to Alexis Soloski of rakes, roués and his own more discreet charms. An edited version of their conversation follows.

Q: Casanova was a consummate Renaissance man, skilled in many disciplines. You’re an actor, a director, a producer, a fashion designer. Is he your ideal?

A: I just follow my interests. But probably he did, too. He was a priest, then a soldier, then a violinist in the symphony, which were the worst years of his life. He was an alchemist, a Freemason, a mathematician, a kabbalist. I’m a more anchored figure and very much more plodding. It would be interesting to be like Casanova, but boy, I wouldn’t want it more than a week. I don’t think I could run around for 50 years trying to tell boys from girls, wives from daughters. I don’t know if I have that tenacity.

Q: Valmont is one of our great fictional seducers and Casanova — if we believe his memoirs — is our great factual one. How does Casanova differ from Valmont?

A: I don’t think Casanova was so cowardly or so controlled in his emotions. He was a victim of his senses. And I think Casanova had a much more generous attitude toward women.

Q: In the “Giacomo” script Casanova seems unrepentant, even regarding an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Yet Valmont does repent. Why?

A: Probably because Valmont killed and Casanova died. That’s a big difference even to a character like Valmont.

Q: Did Casanova never kill anyone?

A: He was in a few duels, he squeezed off a few rounds. In “Giacomo” we recount his duel with a Polish count. They shot each other, wounded each other, and then became friends for life.

Q: You played Valmont in the 1988 Stephen Frears film, “Dangerous Liaisons.” What attracted you to the role?

A: He’s very charming. He’s very funny. He’s very mean. But what makes him a great character is his lack of courage and his inability to act on his own feelings. He has a terrific fear of having feelings he can’t control.

Q: In your new version of “Dangerous Liaisons” you mix corsetry and bustles with skinny jeans and smartphones. Why did you combine the 18th-century style with the contemporary?

A: I had a very long audition process with these kids and that idea really came from watching callbacks — watching them sit back down and text after having done really incredibly emotionally rich things. I always saw “Liaisons” as more infantile than most people saw it, as more amusing and childish. But then, once you get the laughs out, it kind of darkens and deepens.

Q: French styles of acting differ from the kind you would have practiced at Steppenwolf. What do you think the main disparities are?

A: Well, in the two plays I directed in Paris before, the actors had a tendency to say, “You shouldn’t do that,” or “You should do this,” or “It should be more like this.” We certainly didn’t do that at Steppenwolf. As an actor you’re there to respond, not to direct; it’s not your job. But these young actors don’t do that.

In France a lot of the directors direct every moment. I do the absolute inverse. I describe a playing field and where the goals are. I encourage the actors to go make goals. They respond to that fantastically.

Q: Why do you think you’re so often cast in the role of the seducer?

A: I’ve played Valmont, Lord Rochester and now Casanova. And I was asked to play de Sade. But it’s always hard to know why people think of you that way. I start a film just after we finish this tour where I play a small-town sheriff, a yokel. That I can understand.

Q: So seduction isn’t an art you’ve practiced in your life?

A: No, but of course once you play something like that, that’s who you are. You can run screaming from it, but it will catch you. That’s just the power of the image. But I don’t think it’s part of my personality, my makeup.

Q: Well, your speaking voice is very seductive.

A: It’s either seductive or sleep inducing. It’s a perfect cure for insomnia.