John Cusack Talks About "Max"
"Max" is the directorial debut of Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Menno Meyjes. The movie stars John Cusack as Max Rothman, a celebrated art gallery owner who befriends an aspiring young artist and fellow war veteran, Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor). Despite Max's assistance and encouragement, Hitler is unsuccessful as an artist and turns all of his energy to politics.
Casting the crucial role of Max had producer Andras Hamori and writer/director Meyjes stumped. No one actor seemed to jump to the head of the line until one evening the two spotted a photo of John Cusack on the cover of a magazine. Hamori recalls, "Just as if we were in a bad movie, we both paused, gasped, turned to each other and said, 'This is Max Rothman.'" Fortune further smiled on the two when Cusack reacted positively to the script. "By some total miracle, when John read the script he become intrigued by the script and fought for it. He became totally obsessed with 'Max,'" says Hamori.
JOHN CUSACK ('Max')
"Max" is a very intense movie. What was the toughest part of making this film?
I think just trying to pull it off. I think it would be like doing a classic kind of epic play. It was a pretty intense high-wire act, just trying to do this film. We were trying to portray the birth of modernism and the examination of the most kind of profound evil [while] putting a human face on it. [The story is] a confusion of art and politics and part history and social history. It's a very ambitious piece. It wasn't like you walked in and said, “Ah, this is a slam-dunk. We've got this.”
How did you get involved with "Max?"
The [script] came in and I grabbed on to it. Menno [Meyjes] had, for some reason, needed a one-armed German-Jewish art dealer and he just thought of me. He saw me more as a German for this. Where I grew up the Irish, the Jews, and the Italians all hung out together. So I grew up with screaming Irish, Jewish, and Italians debating politics.
How hard was it to concentrate on the acting with your arm physically tied behind you?
The hard part was the geometry of it was off-kilter a little bit. We didn't have a lot of money so there was a constant sense of paranoia, “Did you see the arm? Did you see the arm?” It was real hard.
How did you research your role?
I did a lot of research on German Jews and I was lucky enough to have found this book by a Yale professor who did this real exhaustive research on it. And like every one else, there were different levels of connection to the Judaism. Many of them just saw themselves as Germans who just happened to be Jewish, the same way that I'm American but happen to be Catholic. I was raised Catholic but it's not like I walk around each day thinking, “I'm a Catholic. I'm a Catholic.” They were just Germans and they were patriots.
Was special care taken to not oversimplify a character like Hitler or oversimplify his motivations?
I think we did the opposite. I think a lot of films have oversimplified this kind of power-hungry demonic monster, which is certainly true. This kind of talks about some of the other things. The nature of the film addresses the question. The nature of the film is to examine it and not oversimplify his motives.
What do you think are the culminating factors that led him to become this great exterminator?
Repressed emotions, the inability to express it, and cowardice. The film kind of postulates his inability to honestly express himself through his art caused him to then give up art and try the field of politics. Those two things together, that was his evil genius. [It] had to do with that fusion of art and politics and him being very ahead of the curve - to a horrible end.
There's no doubt that he was a sophisticated black genius. He saw the power of modern art. He hated the content of it because it was humanizing the anti-war movement but he found the power from it. He took the colors, the notions of it, into propaganda - this vapid performance art piece. He had the actual power. If you cross this confusion of art and power and his descent into the black arts, the occult, that explains a lot. Seeing it through the prism of art.
His fascism comes from anger and sexual frustration and class denied. You see it today and think, “How could some of these hardcore Islamic fundamentalists do that?” Well, they're living in poverty and they are living in some situation that feels hopeless. They can either feel hopeless and sexually frustrated living in a room full of 20 people - they don't have any upwardly mobile things to strive for - they can either be losers or they can be God's warriors. What are they going to choose? There are also the social and the class and the economic issues that we add in to it. Ultimately, I think he made a choice to turn. He made a great criminal choice not to take responsibility for own his life. He took the path of less resistance, which is to hate. That's the easiest thing to do. He wouldn't pay the price to be a great artist; the toll was too high. These are complex answers to the question about oversimplifying. I think the film is the opposite - simplistic.
Have you thought about once the film comes out there might be potential backlash? The subject matter could be misconstrued and people might think you're trying to glorify Hitler and make him an every-day kind of guy. Are you prepared to defend the film?
I think it's a deeply moral film, a responsible film, and if you say, "How dare you portray Hitler with a human sense of desire," I'd have to say, “What planet are you living on?” If you want to have that argument intellectually, sit down and have it, bring it on.
He's a complete coward and a thief. It's very comforting to think of evil as a guy who came down in pink vapors and arrived on Earth and then did supernatural evil things and then left in a cloud of dust and fire. But that's not the way it was, sorry to say.
That's what makes this film so great. It actually shows a disturbed man coming back from war.
It shows how his humanity gets poisoned and he makes choices, right? The fact that the man is human doesn't make the man less culpable, it makes him more culpable. If he's not human, then he's beyond human reckoning. You don't have to worry about it happening because he wasn't human, he's not one of us. You don't have to think about any of the factors that lead to his rise or any of that stuff, right? He wasn't human and we're all clean. If he was human, then we've got to deal with it.
The only people who've attacked the film are the people who haven't seen it. It hasn't been attacked here. This film was castigated by people who didn't have the sense to come see what we made. I sort of get off on all that, too. I like to debate. I feel that time will be really good to this film.
What do you think of Noah Taylor's portrayal of Hitler?
I think he's brilliant. I don't know many actors who'd have the guts to do it. I think he was kind of calculating the clinical [part] of how he was going to be able to do it and he just sort of let himself be vacant in a very interesting way. Spiritually vacant, you know? He's a great, great actor.
Do you think about awards when you do a movie like "Max?"
No. Theoretically you hope that it's respected and liked but I don't know if awards help it that much, in terms of the life of the movie or how respected it is. A lot of the awards now have to do with people buying them. It depends if the companies decide to buy them. Harvey Weinstein and DreamWorks paid $50 million to buy Academy Awards. It's not objective; it's not like the Nobel Prize. It's all kind of fad and where the money flows.
You've excelled at so many romantic comedies. What is your idea of romance?
I don't know. My idea of romance? It would be personal with whoever you're romantic with.
Would you ever use one of your movie character stunts to sweep someone off of their feet?
I probably would be capable of just about anything. Nothing - no stunt - would be too low.
From movies.about.com
Showing posts with label John Paul Cusack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Paul Cusack. Show all posts
Sunday, August 5, 2007
John Cusack Interview about "Must Love Dogs"
John Cusack Returns to Romantic Comedies with "Must Love Dogs"
Cusack on "Must Love Dogs," Choosing Roles, and Working with Diane Lane
John Cusack and "Must Love Dogs:" John Cusack has plenty of dramatic roles on his resume, including recent starring turns in "Runaway Jury" and the indie film, "Max." But to me he'll forever be known as the guy who gave us the best teen angst romantic comedies of the 1980s. "Better Off Dead," "The Sure Thing," "One Crazy Summer" and the best of the bunch - "Say Anything" - helped make John Cusack into one of the most recognizable actors of his generation.
Cusack adds another romantic comedy notch on his belt with "Must Love Dogs," an adult relationship comedy about Internet dating and finding the perfect partner.
John Cusack on His Decision to Do Another Romantic Comedy: “I was going to go off and do a film in Europe, and the way things happen in the film business so many times, it fell apart at the last minute.
I thought, ‘I’m going to be sitting home right now not working.’ I hadn’t had any of my own projects ready, and I then I had a call saying, ‘You’ve got to meet this guy Gary Goldberg. He really wants to talk to you.’
So I went and met him for lunch and he seemed like a great guy, and I read the script. So it just sort of came out of the blue, and they asked me to do it. But I thought the combination of Gary and Diane [Lane] and Chris Plummer – that’s a pretty great pedigree, so I was kind of happy to be asked to join such a great group.”
On Typecasting as the Go-To Romantic Comedy Guy: “I don’t think of it that way, as type casting. I think if I get offered to do a movie about relationships I’m going to download as much of what I think about them into a part, or what seems funny to me about it, or what’s on my mind about it. So, if I get offered those parts and think they can be good…
It seems to me that one thing people do over and over again is try to figure out how to get married, stay married, fall in love, how to rekindle all this stuff. It seems to me to be a pretty eternal theme so I don’t know if you can get typecast from making movies about men relating to women. It seems to be what is going on on the planet a lot.”
John Cusack on the Internet: “I’m not really that much of an Internet person. I use it for final drafts for screenplays, and then e-mail. Then I call my assistant all the time and say, ‘My computer’s down. Can you have someone come fix it?’ And then she comes by and they turn it on, and that was the problem with the computer. So I’m not really that good with it. But I do the Google thing where you can Google your name and then find out what the press is saying about you. I’ve done that a few times just to see if they’re saying anything. What I did, I did check out some of those online dating things and some of those chat rooms, and I was amazed at how intense that is.“
It is pretty bizarre, but the whole instant messaging – text thing, it can replace the phone, but you can keep things going it seems like. You can stay in touch with people, even if they are all over the world, so in a sense it’s great because you can just write anybody a note any time and it seems fantastic. But there are more and more of those ads for these things, ‘We’re going to find your perfect mate. You put all your information with us.’ There’s more and more of those things on TV, isn’t there? Late at night when we’re sitting there not trying to sleep. They’re all over.”
If He Was Forced to Go Online to Get a Date… “I don’t want to get a date online. I’m trying to think of what I would put online. I’d probably put something just really funny and absurd, and then if somebody approached me with something that was equally funny, then I would know I would like them. I would try to be funny, and then if someone was funny back I would think, ‘Oh, there must be something interesting there.’ What would I put? ‘Nice person, sometimes brooding, sometimes nice.’”
John Cusack on How to Make a Good Romantic Comedy: “What I think was so great about what Gary was, and I really didn’t know Gary, I just knew that he was this kind of this impresario of television - he’s like James L. Brooks or one of those guys who made those great comedies and character-based comedies that will work forever in television. He really loves character and I think from working in television, the process keeps evolving with Gary. He’s always writing it, and re-writing it, and re-tweaking it, and throwing something out. He just loves characters.
I think he found the book and loved the idea of doing this story with Diane, but then he just kinds of falls in love with the characters and then just keeps trying to make their world more interesting, and more interesting, and he’s not precious at all. He’s really a terrific. I heard great things about him, but he really exceeded all my expectations that way. He just stands there and he goes, ‘I love this guy. I love this girl,’ and ‘How do we make this better?’ and ‘What do we do here?’"
"I think if you just approach it from being interested in the characters and not just interested in the devices or the plot twists… Obviously in a romantic comedy you know that these people are going to meet, then they’re going to get separated, and then they are going to come back together. So it’s really just fleshing out the lives in-between. Any genre can be done well or bad I guess.”
On Choosing Roles – Is it a “One for Them, One for Me” Type of Decision?: “Yeah, but this one, as I said, came out of the blue and I really didn’t know what to expect. But I knew doing something with Christopher Plummer and Diane Lane and Stockard Channing, that’s not really a ‘one for them’ kind of a movie.
I didn’t know what the experience was going to be because it came very fast, out of the blue, but it was really one of the most lovely times I’ve had making a film. The group of people they got together were so nice, and Gary set such an amazing tone. He made it all seem sort of effortless, but he really just loved the characters so it was kind of a joy to come in.
It was very light. It’s a very fun movie, and it’s supposed to be a really fun movie. It didn’t feel like I was going off to do some Diet Pepsi action movie and make some corporate mark. It really just felt like a movie about these characters, and everybody approached it with a lot of love, so it was really a wonderful time to go work on a film. I was just very, very lucky to be wanted. Sometimes they just come to you, but this was just, I think, luck. I was just very lucky to get asked to work with these people.
Then sometimes you take it because you think, ‘If I do this kind of movie maybe it will help me get the movies that I want to get made, made, or help my profile out.’ It’s kind of a dance you do with the business. This had the combination of being a really fun movie and one I think that will be really commercial, so that’s just dumb luck to get ask to be in this.”
Relating to His Character and First Dates: “Some of them you know that stuff, where you actually start talking over dinner and then you realize that you’ve been talking a long time and the person is looking at you with the face of utter incomprehension, and not laughing at your jokes. Then you realize that you still haven’t ordered yet. That’s not so pleasant. But it’s kind of awkward. It’s hard to fathom someone and everybody’s coming at it with – it’s all ripe with possibilities. Is this going to be something great or not? And sometimes the pressure of that is kind of insanely comic.”
John Cusack on the Script and Inserting His Own Style Into the Character: “When I talked to Gary, when I met him I said… Because it was a little bit of a small part, he goes, ‘Well, if we’re going to have you do it, we’ve got to make something of it.’ And then that’s his thing. His process is to just get an actor and then write and re-write and work on the set. He’s always bringing new pages on the set so I came with some ideas and then he wanted to go with them. That was kind of how he wanted to do it, and I like to work that way too. And I have ideas.”
On Working With Diane Lane: “I’d always sort of wanted to work with her so, as I said, I was very lucky to get asked to do this because I’d been following her. I probably had a crush on her since ‘A Little Romance’ when she was 13 and I was about the same age probably.”
On Improvisation in “Must Love Dogs:” “I think Gary would have it on paper and he’d be rewriting it a lot, and you come up with an idea. I would do it that way and then I’d say, ‘Well, let’s just do one where I say anything that comes out of my mouth,’ and we’d do that. Sometimes Gary would laugh and sometimes he would sort of look at me like I was insane and I don’t know how much of that he used.
We improvised a bit but there was a lot on the page and the actors kind of just went with it and went with their impulses. It’s kind of nice to do that in comedy because it’s really all about the character. It’s not like it’s a heist movie where they have to be at this moment and do this and crack the safe and get the number. Character drives plot so it’s all about these characters and what’s going on with them and what they’re feeling, so there is room for improvisation in a film like that. Gary likes to work that way. I think he’s worked with actors before who like to riff.”
John Cusack on His Upcoming Projects: “I’m shooting this film called ‘The Martian Child’ with myself and my sister Joan. Amanda Peet’s in it and Oliver Platt and Sophie Okonedo. I’m making it with the director who I made ‘Max’ with. It’s about a guy who adopts a kid with kind of special needs. It’s a really nice story.”
Cusack’s also shooting a film in Bulgaria. “I’m making a film with Morgan Freeman called ‘The Contract’ with Bruce Beresford. Kind of a hostage drama kind of thing. It sort of switches back and forth but Morgan plays a bad guy, which is pretty interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that so I said, ‘Alright, I’m going to Bulgaria.’ He’s one of those actors, kind of like Christopher Plummer or Stockard Channing or Diane [Lane] or any of those people where if somebody said, ‘Come on in and they’re going to read the phone book from L to M,’ I would just listen because they are so interesting to watch - those actors.”
On His Edgar Casey Project and His Interest in the Paranormal: “I have an interest in that sort of thing. I’m very interested in that and then my father and I started working on a screenplay before he passed away, so I have a connection with my father, too. I just think the world is fascinating. I’m interested in what you can learn from it.“
John Cusack’s Take on the Paranormal: “…I’ve had experiences where I’m pretty sure there’s more going on than [what’s on the surface]. Instincts and intuition things and things where people have known stuff they’re not supposed to know. You wake up and go, ‘Something’s up with somebody,’ and it’s happened. Just little connections to people where you’re hardwired in ways you don’t really know about or aren’t conscious of.
I’ve just studied that stuff for a while and I think he’s a fascinating creature. Houdini and all these people tried to debunk him and nobody could, so he definitely had a connection to this other world, whatever that is, that is kind of irrefutable. He was studied and there’s 40 books written about him and there’s a whole institute in Virginia Beach. He’s a fascinating figure. Spencer Tracy wanted to do a movie about him for a long time. They’ve been trying to do a movie about him for a while so I’m going to do that one.”
From movies.about.com
Cusack on "Must Love Dogs," Choosing Roles, and Working with Diane Lane
John Cusack and "Must Love Dogs:" John Cusack has plenty of dramatic roles on his resume, including recent starring turns in "Runaway Jury" and the indie film, "Max." But to me he'll forever be known as the guy who gave us the best teen angst romantic comedies of the 1980s. "Better Off Dead," "The Sure Thing," "One Crazy Summer" and the best of the bunch - "Say Anything" - helped make John Cusack into one of the most recognizable actors of his generation.
Cusack adds another romantic comedy notch on his belt with "Must Love Dogs," an adult relationship comedy about Internet dating and finding the perfect partner.
John Cusack on His Decision to Do Another Romantic Comedy: “I was going to go off and do a film in Europe, and the way things happen in the film business so many times, it fell apart at the last minute.
I thought, ‘I’m going to be sitting home right now not working.’ I hadn’t had any of my own projects ready, and I then I had a call saying, ‘You’ve got to meet this guy Gary Goldberg. He really wants to talk to you.’
So I went and met him for lunch and he seemed like a great guy, and I read the script. So it just sort of came out of the blue, and they asked me to do it. But I thought the combination of Gary and Diane [Lane] and Chris Plummer – that’s a pretty great pedigree, so I was kind of happy to be asked to join such a great group.”
On Typecasting as the Go-To Romantic Comedy Guy: “I don’t think of it that way, as type casting. I think if I get offered to do a movie about relationships I’m going to download as much of what I think about them into a part, or what seems funny to me about it, or what’s on my mind about it. So, if I get offered those parts and think they can be good…
It seems to me that one thing people do over and over again is try to figure out how to get married, stay married, fall in love, how to rekindle all this stuff. It seems to me to be a pretty eternal theme so I don’t know if you can get typecast from making movies about men relating to women. It seems to be what is going on on the planet a lot.”
John Cusack on the Internet: “I’m not really that much of an Internet person. I use it for final drafts for screenplays, and then e-mail. Then I call my assistant all the time and say, ‘My computer’s down. Can you have someone come fix it?’ And then she comes by and they turn it on, and that was the problem with the computer. So I’m not really that good with it. But I do the Google thing where you can Google your name and then find out what the press is saying about you. I’ve done that a few times just to see if they’re saying anything. What I did, I did check out some of those online dating things and some of those chat rooms, and I was amazed at how intense that is.“
It is pretty bizarre, but the whole instant messaging – text thing, it can replace the phone, but you can keep things going it seems like. You can stay in touch with people, even if they are all over the world, so in a sense it’s great because you can just write anybody a note any time and it seems fantastic. But there are more and more of those ads for these things, ‘We’re going to find your perfect mate. You put all your information with us.’ There’s more and more of those things on TV, isn’t there? Late at night when we’re sitting there not trying to sleep. They’re all over.”
If He Was Forced to Go Online to Get a Date… “I don’t want to get a date online. I’m trying to think of what I would put online. I’d probably put something just really funny and absurd, and then if somebody approached me with something that was equally funny, then I would know I would like them. I would try to be funny, and then if someone was funny back I would think, ‘Oh, there must be something interesting there.’ What would I put? ‘Nice person, sometimes brooding, sometimes nice.’”
John Cusack on How to Make a Good Romantic Comedy: “What I think was so great about what Gary was, and I really didn’t know Gary, I just knew that he was this kind of this impresario of television - he’s like James L. Brooks or one of those guys who made those great comedies and character-based comedies that will work forever in television. He really loves character and I think from working in television, the process keeps evolving with Gary. He’s always writing it, and re-writing it, and re-tweaking it, and throwing something out. He just loves characters.
I think he found the book and loved the idea of doing this story with Diane, but then he just kinds of falls in love with the characters and then just keeps trying to make their world more interesting, and more interesting, and he’s not precious at all. He’s really a terrific. I heard great things about him, but he really exceeded all my expectations that way. He just stands there and he goes, ‘I love this guy. I love this girl,’ and ‘How do we make this better?’ and ‘What do we do here?’"
"I think if you just approach it from being interested in the characters and not just interested in the devices or the plot twists… Obviously in a romantic comedy you know that these people are going to meet, then they’re going to get separated, and then they are going to come back together. So it’s really just fleshing out the lives in-between. Any genre can be done well or bad I guess.”
On Choosing Roles – Is it a “One for Them, One for Me” Type of Decision?: “Yeah, but this one, as I said, came out of the blue and I really didn’t know what to expect. But I knew doing something with Christopher Plummer and Diane Lane and Stockard Channing, that’s not really a ‘one for them’ kind of a movie.
I didn’t know what the experience was going to be because it came very fast, out of the blue, but it was really one of the most lovely times I’ve had making a film. The group of people they got together were so nice, and Gary set such an amazing tone. He made it all seem sort of effortless, but he really just loved the characters so it was kind of a joy to come in.
It was very light. It’s a very fun movie, and it’s supposed to be a really fun movie. It didn’t feel like I was going off to do some Diet Pepsi action movie and make some corporate mark. It really just felt like a movie about these characters, and everybody approached it with a lot of love, so it was really a wonderful time to go work on a film. I was just very, very lucky to be wanted. Sometimes they just come to you, but this was just, I think, luck. I was just very lucky to get asked to work with these people.
Then sometimes you take it because you think, ‘If I do this kind of movie maybe it will help me get the movies that I want to get made, made, or help my profile out.’ It’s kind of a dance you do with the business. This had the combination of being a really fun movie and one I think that will be really commercial, so that’s just dumb luck to get ask to be in this.”
Relating to His Character and First Dates: “Some of them you know that stuff, where you actually start talking over dinner and then you realize that you’ve been talking a long time and the person is looking at you with the face of utter incomprehension, and not laughing at your jokes. Then you realize that you still haven’t ordered yet. That’s not so pleasant. But it’s kind of awkward. It’s hard to fathom someone and everybody’s coming at it with – it’s all ripe with possibilities. Is this going to be something great or not? And sometimes the pressure of that is kind of insanely comic.”
John Cusack on the Script and Inserting His Own Style Into the Character: “When I talked to Gary, when I met him I said… Because it was a little bit of a small part, he goes, ‘Well, if we’re going to have you do it, we’ve got to make something of it.’ And then that’s his thing. His process is to just get an actor and then write and re-write and work on the set. He’s always bringing new pages on the set so I came with some ideas and then he wanted to go with them. That was kind of how he wanted to do it, and I like to work that way too. And I have ideas.”
On Working With Diane Lane: “I’d always sort of wanted to work with her so, as I said, I was very lucky to get asked to do this because I’d been following her. I probably had a crush on her since ‘A Little Romance’ when she was 13 and I was about the same age probably.”
On Improvisation in “Must Love Dogs:” “I think Gary would have it on paper and he’d be rewriting it a lot, and you come up with an idea. I would do it that way and then I’d say, ‘Well, let’s just do one where I say anything that comes out of my mouth,’ and we’d do that. Sometimes Gary would laugh and sometimes he would sort of look at me like I was insane and I don’t know how much of that he used.
We improvised a bit but there was a lot on the page and the actors kind of just went with it and went with their impulses. It’s kind of nice to do that in comedy because it’s really all about the character. It’s not like it’s a heist movie where they have to be at this moment and do this and crack the safe and get the number. Character drives plot so it’s all about these characters and what’s going on with them and what they’re feeling, so there is room for improvisation in a film like that. Gary likes to work that way. I think he’s worked with actors before who like to riff.”
John Cusack on His Upcoming Projects: “I’m shooting this film called ‘The Martian Child’ with myself and my sister Joan. Amanda Peet’s in it and Oliver Platt and Sophie Okonedo. I’m making it with the director who I made ‘Max’ with. It’s about a guy who adopts a kid with kind of special needs. It’s a really nice story.”
Cusack’s also shooting a film in Bulgaria. “I’m making a film with Morgan Freeman called ‘The Contract’ with Bruce Beresford. Kind of a hostage drama kind of thing. It sort of switches back and forth but Morgan plays a bad guy, which is pretty interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that so I said, ‘Alright, I’m going to Bulgaria.’ He’s one of those actors, kind of like Christopher Plummer or Stockard Channing or Diane [Lane] or any of those people where if somebody said, ‘Come on in and they’re going to read the phone book from L to M,’ I would just listen because they are so interesting to watch - those actors.”
On His Edgar Casey Project and His Interest in the Paranormal: “I have an interest in that sort of thing. I’m very interested in that and then my father and I started working on a screenplay before he passed away, so I have a connection with my father, too. I just think the world is fascinating. I’m interested in what you can learn from it.“
John Cusack’s Take on the Paranormal: “…I’ve had experiences where I’m pretty sure there’s more going on than [what’s on the surface]. Instincts and intuition things and things where people have known stuff they’re not supposed to know. You wake up and go, ‘Something’s up with somebody,’ and it’s happened. Just little connections to people where you’re hardwired in ways you don’t really know about or aren’t conscious of.
I’ve just studied that stuff for a while and I think he’s a fascinating creature. Houdini and all these people tried to debunk him and nobody could, so he definitely had a connection to this other world, whatever that is, that is kind of irrefutable. He was studied and there’s 40 books written about him and there’s a whole institute in Virginia Beach. He’s a fascinating figure. Spencer Tracy wanted to do a movie about him for a long time. They’ve been trying to do a movie about him for a while so I’m going to do that one.”
From movies.about.com
Saturday, August 4, 2007
JOHN CUSACK Interview to TISCALI about Serendipity
John Cusack's on a rom-com roll. After the huge success of High Fidelity and America's Sweethearts, now he stars alongside our own Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity, a tall tale of two young people trying to find each other, years after the briefest of encounters. The word Serendipity, coined from the title of an old Sri Lankan fairy story, means "an aptitude for making fortunate discoveries accidentally", and that's just what the couple have - in spades. Without ever getting too slushy, the film's a rush of smart detective work and crazy coincidence that really does get you rooting for the increasingly panicked protagonists. It's very Christmasy, it's set in a sparkling New York untouched by the hand of fear - it's a fun waste of an hour and a half. Here, TISCALI gets the lowdown from Mr Cusack himself
Your onscreen relationship with Kate Beckinsale is very natural, very convincing, as if you'd known each other for a long time.
JC: "I'd met her once before, but I didn't know her. I think sometimes you meet people and you feel like you've known them for a long time. And I think good actors can sort of see into people and immediately you have a chemistry with them or not. It's like an affair with no mess. You don't actually consummate it, but you get to pretend, imagine what it would be like. And you get to have a great time with that person - if you like 'em."
One person John HAS known for a long time is co-star Jeremy Piven. As a kid in Chicago he attended Piven's parents' theatre workshop and the pair, great friends ever since, have appeared in nine movies together. In Serendipity, Piven plays Cusack's best buddy, who joins him in the search for Beckinsale and is gradually changed by the experience. The banter between them is always easy, and hugely entertaining.
JC: "We just have a good time. A lot of acting is about developing shorthand with somebody. So, if you're working with somebody you've known for a long time, you already have all that history".
Cusack's finest and funniest scenes, though, are those he shares with Eugene Levy, star of Best In Show, who plays a neurotic and hilariously controlling shop assistant.
JC: "Yeah, he's like a bulldozer. You have to step back and get out of his way. Those scenes had a lot of ad-libbing, and they were so good they ended up being much longer than they were in the original script. And they added a scene so Eugene would reappear at the end."
Having co-written Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity, and started his own New Crime production company, Cusack is something of an artistic Defender Of The Faith. Like his friend and mentor, Tim Robbins, he likes his movies to be deeper than the norm. Serendipity, though, is very simple.
JC: "Yeah, it has a light and romantic feeling. You know what's gonna happen - boy's gonna meet girl, they miss each other and they're gonna end up together again. It's a piece of entertainment. You buy the ticket and take the ride. You try to make it as good and enjoyable as you can along the way, but you don't want to make it too complicated. That would be like trying to get blood out of a turnip."
After starring in Con Air, Cusack said he took the role because the money, fame and consequent power would allow him to concentrate on his own New Crime projects. Is this also why he chose to make Serendipity?
JC: "Yeah, but it's not just about New Crime, it's about doing things I find interesting."
Cusack found himself promoting Serendipity in New York, shortly after the September 11th catastrophe. Was that problematic?
JC: "That was very difficult to do. I didn't want to do any talk-shows or do anything for the film, but then we had everyone, including the Mayor, saying 'Please come to New York'. Then I talked to the people at Miramax and Harvey Weinstein and he said 'We're a New York company, the film's set in New York - we should come and do this for the city.' I was OK with that, as long as I knew the movie was positioned right, as long as we were SUPPORTING the city. Most of all, the city WANTED us there. They wanted their baseball games back, and their movies, and this movie had a nice, romantic vision of New York that people want to remember, and will be again."
Serendipity makes New York look truly beautiful, a real wintery wonderland. Incredible really, as it was filmed throughout a boiling August, with shooting shut down on several occasions due to Central Park being sprayed for mosquitos. It's great to see, a real change from the grim pictures we've endured in 2001.
JC: "I think people were really glad to not see those images in their head any more. They'd got to the point where they wanted to feel something else. So people seemed to be drinking the movie up, really glad to see the city in a different way than as the home of a mass tragedy. Which is true, it IS much more than that."
Did any shots have to be edited out, in the wake of the attack?
JC: "I guess there was. I didn't see the edit before they made the cuts, but I guess there was a shot of the World Trade towers."
Did the events of September 11th have any impact on Cusack's choice of future roles. Did it see him shying away from violent movies?
JC: "No. My perspective on that was well formed before all that happened in America. It just made me more resolute in doing stuff that I like. Though I do think there's gonna be more opportunities to do stuff that looks at things in a more complex way, rather than giving very simple answers to very complex questions, like most films do. Those films just don't seem very helpful."
Does he think the movie industry is over-reacting to the attack, maybe even cashing in on the current burst of patriotism?
JC: "I haven't seen any of those movies yet. But I think any time you stop looking at evil as a black and white thing, it's helpful. So the fact that there won't be any of your obligatory Islamic terrorist stereotypes in movies any more, that'd be helpful."
Is that why Cusack chose his next project, Max (formerly known as Hoffman), where he plays an art teacher who ends up teaching the young Adolf Hitler?
JC: "Well, it doesn't at all condone or sympathise what Hitler did. It looks at him as a complex human being. An evil one, but a human being nonetheless. He's not a cartoon, he's a 31-year-old corporal who was a racist, who wanted to learn about modern art."
The next time we'll see Cusack onscreen will be in Spike Jonze's Adaptation. John, of course, starred as puppeteer and weirdo Craig Schwartz in Jonze's brilliant Being John Malkovich.
JC: "Yes. It's an insane script, obviously, because Charlie Kaufman wrote it. There's a point in the movie where Charlie - I mean his character - goes to visit the set of Being John Malkovich, which he also wrote. So the Escher maze just keeps going. So I'm an actor playing Craig Schwarz in the film Being John Malkovich, in the film Adaptation."
He's also signed on to make White Jazz.
JC: "Yeah, that, Being John Malkovich and Max were the best three scripts I've read in the last six years. In White Jazz, I play this guy called Junior Stemmons in Fifties' Los Angeles. It's typical James Ellroy insanity, very dark, very dreamscapey. I think it's starting up in January, maybe February, as soon as the finances are in place."
Serendipity is directed by Peter Chelson, British helmsman of Hear My Song and Funny Bones. Does he have any plans to work with British directors or actors again?
JC: "Well, the British keep employing me, and that makes me like them. It also makes me think they're very intelligent.
And is he aware of the campaign to get him to run for president?
JC: "Yeah".
Is he supporting it?
JC: "No."
He doesn't fancy the pay cut?
JC: "Hah! No, you couldn't say what you wanted if you were president."
from tiscali.co.uk
Your onscreen relationship with Kate Beckinsale is very natural, very convincing, as if you'd known each other for a long time.
JC: "I'd met her once before, but I didn't know her. I think sometimes you meet people and you feel like you've known them for a long time. And I think good actors can sort of see into people and immediately you have a chemistry with them or not. It's like an affair with no mess. You don't actually consummate it, but you get to pretend, imagine what it would be like. And you get to have a great time with that person - if you like 'em."
One person John HAS known for a long time is co-star Jeremy Piven. As a kid in Chicago he attended Piven's parents' theatre workshop and the pair, great friends ever since, have appeared in nine movies together. In Serendipity, Piven plays Cusack's best buddy, who joins him in the search for Beckinsale and is gradually changed by the experience. The banter between them is always easy, and hugely entertaining.
JC: "We just have a good time. A lot of acting is about developing shorthand with somebody. So, if you're working with somebody you've known for a long time, you already have all that history".
Cusack's finest and funniest scenes, though, are those he shares with Eugene Levy, star of Best In Show, who plays a neurotic and hilariously controlling shop assistant.
JC: "Yeah, he's like a bulldozer. You have to step back and get out of his way. Those scenes had a lot of ad-libbing, and they were so good they ended up being much longer than they were in the original script. And they added a scene so Eugene would reappear at the end."
Having co-written Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity, and started his own New Crime production company, Cusack is something of an artistic Defender Of The Faith. Like his friend and mentor, Tim Robbins, he likes his movies to be deeper than the norm. Serendipity, though, is very simple.
JC: "Yeah, it has a light and romantic feeling. You know what's gonna happen - boy's gonna meet girl, they miss each other and they're gonna end up together again. It's a piece of entertainment. You buy the ticket and take the ride. You try to make it as good and enjoyable as you can along the way, but you don't want to make it too complicated. That would be like trying to get blood out of a turnip."
After starring in Con Air, Cusack said he took the role because the money, fame and consequent power would allow him to concentrate on his own New Crime projects. Is this also why he chose to make Serendipity?
JC: "Yeah, but it's not just about New Crime, it's about doing things I find interesting."
Cusack found himself promoting Serendipity in New York, shortly after the September 11th catastrophe. Was that problematic?
JC: "That was very difficult to do. I didn't want to do any talk-shows or do anything for the film, but then we had everyone, including the Mayor, saying 'Please come to New York'. Then I talked to the people at Miramax and Harvey Weinstein and he said 'We're a New York company, the film's set in New York - we should come and do this for the city.' I was OK with that, as long as I knew the movie was positioned right, as long as we were SUPPORTING the city. Most of all, the city WANTED us there. They wanted their baseball games back, and their movies, and this movie had a nice, romantic vision of New York that people want to remember, and will be again."
Serendipity makes New York look truly beautiful, a real wintery wonderland. Incredible really, as it was filmed throughout a boiling August, with shooting shut down on several occasions due to Central Park being sprayed for mosquitos. It's great to see, a real change from the grim pictures we've endured in 2001.
JC: "I think people were really glad to not see those images in their head any more. They'd got to the point where they wanted to feel something else. So people seemed to be drinking the movie up, really glad to see the city in a different way than as the home of a mass tragedy. Which is true, it IS much more than that."
Did any shots have to be edited out, in the wake of the attack?
JC: "I guess there was. I didn't see the edit before they made the cuts, but I guess there was a shot of the World Trade towers."
Did the events of September 11th have any impact on Cusack's choice of future roles. Did it see him shying away from violent movies?
JC: "No. My perspective on that was well formed before all that happened in America. It just made me more resolute in doing stuff that I like. Though I do think there's gonna be more opportunities to do stuff that looks at things in a more complex way, rather than giving very simple answers to very complex questions, like most films do. Those films just don't seem very helpful."
Does he think the movie industry is over-reacting to the attack, maybe even cashing in on the current burst of patriotism?
JC: "I haven't seen any of those movies yet. But I think any time you stop looking at evil as a black and white thing, it's helpful. So the fact that there won't be any of your obligatory Islamic terrorist stereotypes in movies any more, that'd be helpful."
Is that why Cusack chose his next project, Max (formerly known as Hoffman), where he plays an art teacher who ends up teaching the young Adolf Hitler?
JC: "Well, it doesn't at all condone or sympathise what Hitler did. It looks at him as a complex human being. An evil one, but a human being nonetheless. He's not a cartoon, he's a 31-year-old corporal who was a racist, who wanted to learn about modern art."
The next time we'll see Cusack onscreen will be in Spike Jonze's Adaptation. John, of course, starred as puppeteer and weirdo Craig Schwartz in Jonze's brilliant Being John Malkovich.
JC: "Yes. It's an insane script, obviously, because Charlie Kaufman wrote it. There's a point in the movie where Charlie - I mean his character - goes to visit the set of Being John Malkovich, which he also wrote. So the Escher maze just keeps going. So I'm an actor playing Craig Schwarz in the film Being John Malkovich, in the film Adaptation."
He's also signed on to make White Jazz.
JC: "Yeah, that, Being John Malkovich and Max were the best three scripts I've read in the last six years. In White Jazz, I play this guy called Junior Stemmons in Fifties' Los Angeles. It's typical James Ellroy insanity, very dark, very dreamscapey. I think it's starting up in January, maybe February, as soon as the finances are in place."
Serendipity is directed by Peter Chelson, British helmsman of Hear My Song and Funny Bones. Does he have any plans to work with British directors or actors again?
JC: "Well, the British keep employing me, and that makes me like them. It also makes me think they're very intelligent.
And is he aware of the campaign to get him to run for president?
JC: "Yeah".
Is he supporting it?
JC: "No."
He doesn't fancy the pay cut?
JC: "Hah! No, you couldn't say what you wanted if you were president."
from tiscali.co.uk
John Paul Cusack Biography
Date of Birth
28 June 1966, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Birth Name
John Paul Cusack
Height
6' 2½" (1.89 m)
Mini Biography
John Cusack is, like most of his characters, an unconventional hero. Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, the Chicago-born actor has built a successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while avoiding the media spotlight. With the exception of mom Nancy (a former math teacher), the Cusack clan is all show business: father Dick Cusack is an actor and filmmaker, and John's siblings Joan Cusack, Ann Cusack, Bill Cusack and Susie Cusack are all thespians by trade. Like his brother and sisters, John became a member of Chicago's Piven Theatre Workshop while he was still in elementary school. By age 12, he already had several stage productions, commercial voice overs and industrial films under his belt. He made his feature film debut at 17, acting alongside Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy in the romantic comedy Class (1983). His next role, as a member of Anthony Michael Hall's geek brigade in Sixteen Candles (1984), put him on track to becoming a teen-flick fixture. Cusack remained on the periphery of the Brat Pack, sidestepping the meteoric rise and fall of most of his contemporaries, but he stayed busy with leads in films like The Sure Thing (1985) and Better Off Dead... (1985). Young Cusack is probably best remembered for what could be considered his last adolescent role: the stereo-blaring romantic Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything... (1989). A year later, he hit theaters as a grown-up, playing a bush-league con man caught between his manipulative mother and headstrong girlfriend in The Grifters (1990).
The next few years were relatively quiet for the actor, but he filled in the gaps with off-screen projects. He directed and produced several shows for the Chicago-based theater group The New Criminals, which he founded in 1988 (modeling it after Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang in Los Angeles) to promote political and avant-garde stage work. Four years later, Cusack's high school friends Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis joined him in starting a sister company for film, New Crime Productions. New Crime's first feature was the sharply written comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), which touched off a career renaissance for Cusack. In addition to co-scripting, he starred as a world-weary hit man who goes home for his ten-year high school reunion and tries to rekindle a romance with the girl he stood up on prom night (Minnie Driver). In an instance of life imitating art, Cusack actually did go home for his ten-year reunion (to honor a bet about the film's financing) and ended up in a real-life romance with Driver. Cusack's next appearance was as a federal agent (or, as he described it, "the first post-Heston, non-biblical action star in sandals") in Con Air (1997), a movie he chose because he felt it was time to make smart business decisions. He followed that with Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), in which he played a Yankee reporter entangled in a Savannah murder case.
Cusack has always favored offbeat material, so it was no surprise when he turned up in the fiercely original Being John Malkovich (1999). Long-haired, bearded and bespectacled, he was almost unrecognizable in the role of a frustrated puppeteer who stumbles across a portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. The convincing performance won him a Best Actor nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards. In 2000, Cusack was back to his clean-shaven self in High Fidelity (2000), another New Crime production. He worked with Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis to adapt Nick Hornby's popular novel (relocating the story to their native Chicago), then starred as the sarcastic record store owner who revisits his "Top 5" breakups to find out why he's so unlucky in love. The real Cusack has been romantically linked with several celebs, including Driver, Alison Eastwood, Claire Forlani and Neve Campbell. He's also something of a family man, acting frequently opposite sister Joan Cusack and pulling other Cusacks into his films on a regular basis. He seems pleased with the spate of projects on his horizon, but admits that he still hasn't reached his ultimate goal: to be involved in a "great piece of art".
Trivia
Brother of Joan Cusack, Ann Cusack, Susie Cusack and Bill Cusack. Son of Dick Cusack (actor, documentary filmmaker) and Nancy Cusack (teacher).
Last name is pronounced Q-sack.
Has a production company called New Crime Productions (that produced Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), and The Jack Bull (1999) (TV) among various stage productions) which he founded with two of his high school buddies Steve Pink & D.V. DeVincentis.
Education: Piven Theatre Workshop (Evanston, Illinois), run by the parents of actor Jeremy Piven. One semester at NYU.
Attended Evanston Township High School, Evanston, Ill.
Turned down Woody Harrelson's role in Indecent Proposal (1993).
Dated Neve Campbell. [2001]
Dated Lili Taylor.
Dated Alison Eastwood.
Dated Claire Forlani.
Dated Minnie Driver.
Turned down Bill Paxton's role in Apollo 13 (1995).
Close friends with actor Jeremy Piven. They have done 10 movies together: One Crazy Summer (1986), Elvis Stories (1989), Say Anything... (1989), The Player (1992), Floundering (1994), The Grifters (1990), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Serendipity (2001) and Runaway Jury (2003).
Is the product of a passionately liberal Irish Catholic family, visited the radical Berrigan brothers when he was growing up, and, like them, his mother still gets arrested for her anti-militarism and pro- human rights protests.
On free time likes to go "Helecopter Snowboarding" and kickboxing with stunt cordinator Benny Urquidez.
Tested for the role of Madmartigan in Willow (1988) but lost to Val Kilmer.
Is the subject of the song "Honorable Mention" by the band Fall Out Boy.
The novel "Love In The Time Of Cholera" by author Gabriel Garcia Marquez is prominently referenced in two John Cusack movies (High Fidelity (2000) and Serendipity (2001).
Sister Joan Cusack appeared in 8 of his movies:Class (1983), Sixteen Candles (1984), Grandview, U.S.A. (1984), Broadcast News (1987), Say Anything... (1989), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Cradle Will Rock (1999) and High Fidelity (2000).
Was originally set to play Walter Eberhart in the _Stepford Wives, The (2004)_ . Due to conflicts, he had to drop out and Matthew Broderick got the role.
Was once roommates with Jeremy Piven
Attended a theatre school in Chicago with sisters Joan Cusack and Ann Cusack. The theatre school was run by the parents of his best friend, Jeremy Piven
Irish-American.
His favorite group is the punk rock band, The Clash. He is also a big fan of The Specials and Elvis Costello.
Ranked #15 on Tropopkin's Top 25 Most Intriguing People [Issue #100]
Die-hard Chicago Cubs fan.
Some kind of reference to his favorite bands (usually The Clash, The Ramones or The Specials) makes at least one appearance in most of his films. Most of the time, he wears a t-shirt of one of the bands (Say Anything... (1989), High Fidelity (2000), Must Love Dogs (2005), etc), but sometimes (Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)) he works in a poster of one of the bands. These bands are typically in the soundtracks to his New Criminal's productions as well.
Member of the "Brat Pack", the name for the actors who tended to star in teen movies of the 80's. Others include Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Demi Moore, Charlie Sheen and Diane Lane.
Most famous member of the Cusack family.
He and his good friend Tim Robbins made 6 movies together: Bob Roberts (1992), Cradle Will Rock (1999), High Fidelity (2000), The Player (1992), The Sure Thing (1985) and Tapeheads (1988)
Was, for a long time, attached to play the role of "Nite Owl" in the doomed movie adaptation of Alan Moore's comic-book mini-series, _Watchmen (2008)_ .
Was originally the actor chosen to play John Bender in the The Breakfast Club (1985). At the last minute, things changed and Judd Nelson ended up in the role.
Was good friends with Hunter S. Thompson and nearly got to play him in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
Was considered for the role of "Paul Brenner" in The General's Daughter (1999), but was deemed too young at the time, so the role went to John Travolta instead.
His performance as "Lloyd Dobler" in Say Anything... (1989) is ranked #72 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Apocalypse Now (1979) is one of his favorite films.
During the famous "boom box serenade" scene in Say Anything... (1989), he is actually playing his favorite Fishbone tape on the boom box, while Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" is played in the movie. (source: Cameron Crowe commentary on the DVD).
Growing up John and his siblings often put on plays at their home. He has mentioned that his older sister Ann once staged a production of "Cinderella" in their living room in which she played Cinderella, sister Joan played the Ugly Stepsister, brother Bill played Prince Charming and John played the dog.
Considers the scripts to Max (2002/I) and Being John Malkovich (1999) the best he has read.
Personal Quotes
"I was a teen star. That's disgusting enough."
[on celebrity] "I have a healthy fear of it. I'm not into the celebrity culture aspect of being an artist. To me it represents extinction. The more people know about you, the less they want to try to figure out what you have to say in your movies, and the less credibility you have. To me it seems: Go do your thing, then get out. That's the best way to do it." (January 14, 2004)
"Nope, no sex scandals yet. But I am open to offers!" (January 14, 2004)
Info Provided by IMDB
28 June 1966, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Birth Name
John Paul Cusack
Height
6' 2½" (1.89 m)
Mini Biography
John Cusack is, like most of his characters, an unconventional hero. Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, the Chicago-born actor has built a successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while avoiding the media spotlight. With the exception of mom Nancy (a former math teacher), the Cusack clan is all show business: father Dick Cusack is an actor and filmmaker, and John's siblings Joan Cusack, Ann Cusack, Bill Cusack and Susie Cusack are all thespians by trade. Like his brother and sisters, John became a member of Chicago's Piven Theatre Workshop while he was still in elementary school. By age 12, he already had several stage productions, commercial voice overs and industrial films under his belt. He made his feature film debut at 17, acting alongside Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy in the romantic comedy Class (1983). His next role, as a member of Anthony Michael Hall's geek brigade in Sixteen Candles (1984), put him on track to becoming a teen-flick fixture. Cusack remained on the periphery of the Brat Pack, sidestepping the meteoric rise and fall of most of his contemporaries, but he stayed busy with leads in films like The Sure Thing (1985) and Better Off Dead... (1985). Young Cusack is probably best remembered for what could be considered his last adolescent role: the stereo-blaring romantic Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything... (1989). A year later, he hit theaters as a grown-up, playing a bush-league con man caught between his manipulative mother and headstrong girlfriend in The Grifters (1990).
The next few years were relatively quiet for the actor, but he filled in the gaps with off-screen projects. He directed and produced several shows for the Chicago-based theater group The New Criminals, which he founded in 1988 (modeling it after Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang in Los Angeles) to promote political and avant-garde stage work. Four years later, Cusack's high school friends Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis joined him in starting a sister company for film, New Crime Productions. New Crime's first feature was the sharply written comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), which touched off a career renaissance for Cusack. In addition to co-scripting, he starred as a world-weary hit man who goes home for his ten-year high school reunion and tries to rekindle a romance with the girl he stood up on prom night (Minnie Driver). In an instance of life imitating art, Cusack actually did go home for his ten-year reunion (to honor a bet about the film's financing) and ended up in a real-life romance with Driver. Cusack's next appearance was as a federal agent (or, as he described it, "the first post-Heston, non-biblical action star in sandals") in Con Air (1997), a movie he chose because he felt it was time to make smart business decisions. He followed that with Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), in which he played a Yankee reporter entangled in a Savannah murder case.
Cusack has always favored offbeat material, so it was no surprise when he turned up in the fiercely original Being John Malkovich (1999). Long-haired, bearded and bespectacled, he was almost unrecognizable in the role of a frustrated puppeteer who stumbles across a portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. The convincing performance won him a Best Actor nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards. In 2000, Cusack was back to his clean-shaven self in High Fidelity (2000), another New Crime production. He worked with Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis to adapt Nick Hornby's popular novel (relocating the story to their native Chicago), then starred as the sarcastic record store owner who revisits his "Top 5" breakups to find out why he's so unlucky in love. The real Cusack has been romantically linked with several celebs, including Driver, Alison Eastwood, Claire Forlani and Neve Campbell. He's also something of a family man, acting frequently opposite sister Joan Cusack and pulling other Cusacks into his films on a regular basis. He seems pleased with the spate of projects on his horizon, but admits that he still hasn't reached his ultimate goal: to be involved in a "great piece of art".
Trivia
Brother of Joan Cusack, Ann Cusack, Susie Cusack and Bill Cusack. Son of Dick Cusack (actor, documentary filmmaker) and Nancy Cusack (teacher).
Last name is pronounced Q-sack.
Has a production company called New Crime Productions (that produced Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), and The Jack Bull (1999) (TV) among various stage productions) which he founded with two of his high school buddies Steve Pink & D.V. DeVincentis.
Education: Piven Theatre Workshop (Evanston, Illinois), run by the parents of actor Jeremy Piven. One semester at NYU.
Attended Evanston Township High School, Evanston, Ill.
Turned down Woody Harrelson's role in Indecent Proposal (1993).
Dated Neve Campbell. [2001]
Dated Lili Taylor.
Dated Alison Eastwood.
Dated Claire Forlani.
Dated Minnie Driver.
Turned down Bill Paxton's role in Apollo 13 (1995).
Close friends with actor Jeremy Piven. They have done 10 movies together: One Crazy Summer (1986), Elvis Stories (1989), Say Anything... (1989), The Player (1992), Floundering (1994), The Grifters (1990), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Serendipity (2001) and Runaway Jury (2003).
Is the product of a passionately liberal Irish Catholic family, visited the radical Berrigan brothers when he was growing up, and, like them, his mother still gets arrested for her anti-militarism and pro- human rights protests.
On free time likes to go "Helecopter Snowboarding" and kickboxing with stunt cordinator Benny Urquidez.
Tested for the role of Madmartigan in Willow (1988) but lost to Val Kilmer.
Is the subject of the song "Honorable Mention" by the band Fall Out Boy.
The novel "Love In The Time Of Cholera" by author Gabriel Garcia Marquez is prominently referenced in two John Cusack movies (High Fidelity (2000) and Serendipity (2001).
Sister Joan Cusack appeared in 8 of his movies:Class (1983), Sixteen Candles (1984), Grandview, U.S.A. (1984), Broadcast News (1987), Say Anything... (1989), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Cradle Will Rock (1999) and High Fidelity (2000).
Was originally set to play Walter Eberhart in the _Stepford Wives, The (2004)_ . Due to conflicts, he had to drop out and Matthew Broderick got the role.
Was once roommates with Jeremy Piven
Attended a theatre school in Chicago with sisters Joan Cusack and Ann Cusack. The theatre school was run by the parents of his best friend, Jeremy Piven
Irish-American.
His favorite group is the punk rock band, The Clash. He is also a big fan of The Specials and Elvis Costello.
Ranked #15 on Tropopkin's Top 25 Most Intriguing People [Issue #100]
Die-hard Chicago Cubs fan.
Some kind of reference to his favorite bands (usually The Clash, The Ramones or The Specials) makes at least one appearance in most of his films. Most of the time, he wears a t-shirt of one of the bands (Say Anything... (1989), High Fidelity (2000), Must Love Dogs (2005), etc), but sometimes (Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)) he works in a poster of one of the bands. These bands are typically in the soundtracks to his New Criminal's productions as well.
Member of the "Brat Pack", the name for the actors who tended to star in teen movies of the 80's. Others include Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Demi Moore, Charlie Sheen and Diane Lane.
Most famous member of the Cusack family.
He and his good friend Tim Robbins made 6 movies together: Bob Roberts (1992), Cradle Will Rock (1999), High Fidelity (2000), The Player (1992), The Sure Thing (1985) and Tapeheads (1988)
Was, for a long time, attached to play the role of "Nite Owl" in the doomed movie adaptation of Alan Moore's comic-book mini-series, _Watchmen (2008)_ .
Was originally the actor chosen to play John Bender in the The Breakfast Club (1985). At the last minute, things changed and Judd Nelson ended up in the role.
Was good friends with Hunter S. Thompson and nearly got to play him in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
Was considered for the role of "Paul Brenner" in The General's Daughter (1999), but was deemed too young at the time, so the role went to John Travolta instead.
His performance as "Lloyd Dobler" in Say Anything... (1989) is ranked #72 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Apocalypse Now (1979) is one of his favorite films.
During the famous "boom box serenade" scene in Say Anything... (1989), he is actually playing his favorite Fishbone tape on the boom box, while Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" is played in the movie. (source: Cameron Crowe commentary on the DVD).
Growing up John and his siblings often put on plays at their home. He has mentioned that his older sister Ann once staged a production of "Cinderella" in their living room in which she played Cinderella, sister Joan played the Ugly Stepsister, brother Bill played Prince Charming and John played the dog.
Considers the scripts to Max (2002/I) and Being John Malkovich (1999) the best he has read.
Personal Quotes
"I was a teen star. That's disgusting enough."
[on celebrity] "I have a healthy fear of it. I'm not into the celebrity culture aspect of being an artist. To me it represents extinction. The more people know about you, the less they want to try to figure out what you have to say in your movies, and the less credibility you have. To me it seems: Go do your thing, then get out. That's the best way to do it." (January 14, 2004)
"Nope, no sex scandals yet. But I am open to offers!" (January 14, 2004)
Info Provided by IMDB
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