JOHN MALKOVICH - MALKOVICH PUTS CHILDREN BEFORE STAGE

Actor JOHN MALKOVICH has vowed to stay away from the theatre until his children have grown up.

The RIPLEY'S GAME star, who rose to fame with Chicago's groundbreaking Steppenwolf theatre company alongside GARY SINISE and LAURIE METCALF, admits that combining fatherhood with stage acting is too difficult and time consuming.

The father-of-two says, "I've found since I had children that it's just too hard.

"I still like it as much as I ever did. But it means that you either uproot their lives or you just don't see them. And there's only a few years left now where they'll be around.

"It's three or four months at a time and you can't really go home for a day off."