The Oscar-nominated actor tells PEOPLE how his own experiences performing in foreign languages helped him support his costar as she made her English-language film debut

NEED TO KNOW

• John Malkovich and Mariana di Girolamo tell PEOPLE how they prepared for di Girolamo’s first English-language film role
• The pair play unlikely friends in Wild Horse Nine, a new dark comedy set in Chile and on Easter Island in 1973
• Wild Horse Nine is in theaters now

Wild Horse Nine star Mariana di Girolamo found a supportive costar in John Malkovich as she made her English-language acting debut.

Malkovich, 72, and di Girolamo, a 36-year-old Chilean actress, star alongside Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi and Argentine actress Ailín Salas in the new dark comedy. Set in Chile and on Easter Island in 1973, the film unfolds in the months leading up to the military coup that overthrew Chile’s democratically elected government.

Malkovich, who has worked with actors from around the world performing in English for the first time, knows firsthand how daunting it can be to act in a foreign language.

“I’ve done it as an actor in French and Spanish as well and done things in German and Arabic and what have you, and it’s very stressful,” Malkovich tells PEOPLE during a recent interview, with a laugh.

Di Girolamo delivers a star-making turn as a Chilean college student who unexpectedly crosses paths with Rockwell and Malkovich’s CIA agents while vacationing on Easter Island — also known as Rapa Nui — in the Pacific Ocean.

Having experienced the challenges of acting in a foreign language firsthand, Malkovich was eager to help his costar “keep drilling it so that the stress of performing in a language that is not your own is lessened and lessened and eventually goes away” throughout production.

“That’s the only way I know to alleviate the stress of that, which is a big stress because the language and how you use it is quite a major part of what you do as an actor, so we worked all the time,” he adds.

Di Girolamo tells PEOPLE that when she and Malkovich weren’t rehearsing or filming, they bonded over discussions of Chilean literary and cinematic greats, including novelist Roberto Bolaño, who died in 2003 at age 50, and filmmaker Raúl Ruiz.

“I work also with an English coach and I knew my lines just by heart. It’s the only way that I know, in Spanish, too, to play a little bit or to feel free to try things. John [always] invites me to run into our lines and that was very helpful and important for me.”

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In real life, the Sept. 11, 1973, coup ushered in more than 15 years of brutal authoritarian rule under military leader Augusto Pinochet, a period that continues to shape Chile’s national identity today.

Malkovich says he has developed “an interesting relationship in history with Chile” through his work with filmmaker Ruiz, who died in 2011 at age 70. The two collaborated on the 2006 film Klimt. More recently, Malkovich lent his voice to performances of Chilean author Bolaño’s novel Nazi Literature in the Americas, which he narrated alongside a classical music performance led by concert pianist Anastasia Tereshkova.

“This is a topic, sadly, that I’m familiar with,” Malkovich adds of the events that led to Chile’s period of authoritarian rule in the 20th century.

Wild Horse Nine is in theaters now.

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