JOHN CUSACK CLOSE UP
1)As well as acting as writer, producer and star on High Fidelity- you also chose the music. Was that one of the main reasons you took the project?
Cusack: Yes i'd never seen a film that dealt with peoples love affair with music the way Nick Hornby's novel did. Immediately i thought of the movie-DINER- there's this great sequence where the characters drive around Baltimore and they're talking about their favourite 4's singles and the b sides of them, and it really captured how obssessive we are about pop music and how we mark our lives through different songs. I experience music autobiographically- si i immediately thought it would be a great opportunity to explore that side of our lives.
(2) YOU CHANGED SOME OF THE MUSICAL REFERENCES IN THE MOVIE. WAS THAT TO MAKE IT MORE PERSONAL TO YOU?
CUSACK: The only thing we changed is that the UK version of Rob is a little more faithful to American soul. I'm actually more partial to some of the British stuff. But a lot of the music in the movie is taken right out of the book;I don't know if we really changed anything, just added to it- there's like, 68 musical cues in the film.
(3)HOW DID YOU GET BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN TO MAKE A CAMEO?
CUSACK:Well i, sort of devised this plan to get him to do it, and the plan was that i would call him up and ask him. So i called him up and said "Do you want to have a part in this film?" And he said, " What part?" And i said, "Well you'd play yourself having a conversation with my character in his head." He laughed and said, "How the hell would i do that?" So we sent him the script and he called back and said, "let's do it."
(4)A LOT HAS BEEN MADE OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SHIFT FROM NORTH LONDON TO CHICAGO...-
CUSACK: I know this might be shocking for a lot of British people but the transportation to Chicago was sort of effortless. When i read the book i knew where everything was in Chicago: I knew where the American Rob went to school and dropped out, i knew where two or three different record shops growing up that had Robs, Dicks and Barrys in them...
(5)DID YOU IDENTIFY WITH THE CHARACTER OF ROB?
CUSACK: I think most males who read the book see themselves in Rob more than they'd like to. They might not be as down and out, as poor or as obssessive as Rob but they've walked the path. That's what makes the book universal-[Hornby] really gets inside the workings of the male mind.
(6) WOULD ANY OF YOUR EX-GIRLFRIENDS RECOGNISE YOU IN ROB?
CUSACK: Unfortunately, yes.
(Cusack is wearing a navy jacket zipped up almost to the top and a black t-shirt underneath and is clutching a bottle of water.His hair is tucked behind his ears away from his face and has a little stubble on his face- just incase you were wondering!)
GAIL PORTER:Well another national treasure is Nick Hornby's hit novel 'High Fidelity', a kind of male equivalent of Bridget Jones was snapped up by actor John Cusack's production company and the whole story transplanted from London to Chicago. On the eve of it's release here(UK) we decided to find out what the hell Cusack was playing at!
-When John Cusack decided to adapt Nick Hornby's best selling novel 'High Fidelity' for the screen as well as star-in and produce it, the biggest gamble he took was to move the story from the leafy suburbs of London to the sidewalks of his native Chicago.
CUSACK: See, i knew we'd get a lot of flak from your country and, ah, so i called up Nick and asked him. you know, whether he thought we were insane to set it in the states, and he said, "No go right ahead!", and he was all for it, so once we got Nicks blessing i felt o.k about doing it.
Set in the alternative music scene it's the story of indie record store owner Rob Gordon's battle to win back his girlfriend who's weary of his immaturity and lack of committment (shows clip-"If you really wanted to mess me up, you should have got to me earlier!") translating it into American didn't require much surgery.
CUSACK: It was really easy you know.The language changed a bit but not the context much. (clip- Rob in depression and customer comes in asking does he have any soul). The next challenge was finding the right man to head the project, Cusack turned to Dangerous Liasons director, Stephen Frears, with whom he worked with in the 90's cult classic 'The Grifters'.
FREARS:(on location) What is nice is that the two of you are behaving like children!(directed at Louiso and Black in the scene where they are practically battling to hold down a conversation with singer Marie De Salle-Lisa Bonet)
According to Frears, Cusack and his co-writers had much of the casting sewn up, employing the usual suspects- Tim Robbins and of course John's sister Joan (showing clip between takes, of Cusack and Black having a laugh and then shows John bursting into laughter when his sis Joan comes in to say her bit to him in his record store,- shouting loudly "YOU ASSHOLE!", and John gives a very giddy smile at the camera-'behind the scenes')
FREARS:He and his friends wrote it, they all grew up in Chicago, so it's kind of a home movie... i mean really, what with his father and other members of his family. That's all they do in America is cast members of their family.(shows clip of Laura and Rob having a meal together, Rob: Marvin Gaye is responsible for our entire relationship! LAURA: Oh is that so, then i'd like a word with him)
So how did Danish actress Iben Hjejle who bagged the role of Rob's main squeeze, slate into the mix.
HJEJLE: Well it all starts with doing a dogma movie in Denmark- having that screen in competition in Berlin film festival, then having the courage to go up to Stephen Frears and say, (puts on a really goofy face and voice) am..I really liked Dangerous Liasons, it was one of my favourite movies, and then he said (puts on a really funny English accent) "Well, darling do you think you could come and work in America this summer?". She laughs and says well that's, you know, sort of how it happened.
Another interesting casting decision was casting Angelheart star-Lisa Bonet, who turns up as a salty singer to bewitch Rob (shows Cusack sharing a cute smile with Bonet between takes). It's a modest role but who can say no to John Cusack!
BONET: (Makes a loud lion growl/ roar noise refering to Cusack's gorgeousness- who'd blame her?) She then laughs for a while and then stops and says- he's great!
(clip- shows the top five things he misses about Laura)
As well as being a meditation of the apparent pitfalls of the dating game, what underpins this piece is a shared love amongst the various characters of music and top 5 lists(clip- shows Robs top five side 1's, track 1's) So! Top five lists everyone!
Hjejle: Right. I'm really into the Police. That was like my favourite band when i was a kid and still is i guess. So, i'd have to say Roxanne would be my favourite.
BONET: Ihave no vinyll, i have no lists but yes i love music.
CUSACK: I'm not a list maker. I don't know how to, how to do that because when i start thinking of like a top five, i think of like forty or fifty and it sort of shuts my computer down!
John Cusack in his newest film, "High Fidelity"
"I try to follow the stock market, but I don't watch it everyday.
"When I do, it gets me crazy."
In 1999 alone, Cusack portrayed Nelson Rockefeller in "Rock the Cradle," a wired air-traffic controller nicknamed "The Zone" in "Pushing Tin" and a wacky puppeteer in "Being John Malkovich."
His latest film is Walt Disney's (DIS: news, msgs) "High Fidelity," set for national release on March 31. It's an enjoyable adaptation of Nick Hornby's best-selling novel. Cusack turns in a clever performance as Rob Gordon, an endearing thirtysomething Chicagoan torn between two all-consuming passions: his girlfriend and rock 'n' roll music.
Over the years, Cusack has also starred in Woody Allen's "Bullets over Broadway" and Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything," and he's co-starred in "City Hall" with Al Pacino. "Con Air" was his only appearance in a big-budget action film.
While acting continues to be his focus, Cusack made the leap to Hollywood dealmaking when he formed a production company. In "High Fidelity," he was the star, co-writer and co-producer. He says he wants to turn his attention to directing.
Thoughtful and analytical in person, Cusack, 33, said he applies care to his finances. What follows is a question-and-answer session conducted with Cusack in Walt Disney's offices in New York on March 20. For more on Cusack and his new movie, see related story.
CBS.MW: How would you characterize yourself as an investor?
Cusack: I'm a pretty conservative investor. I have been very successful. A while ago, I bought some pharmaceutical stocks, and now I have a diversified portfolio. I like to hold on to my investments for a long time. I have a certain amount of money set aside to invest in higher-risk situations when I kind of roll the dice. But what's a risky investment these days? Everyone seems to be doing well.
CBS.MW: Do you follow the investment markets much?
Cusack: I have an investment guy and a tax guy in Chicago. I try to follow the stock market, but I don't watch it everyday. When I do, it gets me crazy.
CBS.MW: How do you make your investment choices?
Cusack: I don't like the idea of investing in companies that have horrible track records when it comes to worrying about the misery of other people. Some biotech companies that are involved in gene therapy achieve wonderful advances, but others have questionable applications.
CBS.MW: How does money affect your choice of movie roles?
Cusack: It's hard to balance artistic and money interests. I try not to do movies for the money, though I have had some good paydays. Some movies you do for nothing. I mean, you don't do a Woody Allen movie for the money.
Part 2: Just as we were starting to talk about Malkovich's co-star, John Cusack, said Cusack shuffled in quietly, like a mouse. Cusack's plays a character named Craig Schwartz, a puppeteer who, despite an astonishing talent, can't make a buck at it. A temp filing job leads to wealth in a way no one but Being John Malkovich writer Charlie Kaufman could imagine, as Schwartz and the lovely girl in the office next door, Maxine (Catherine Keener) sell time shares in actor John Malkovich's head. Schwartz falls hard for Maxine, and so does his wife, Lottie (Cameron Diaz) but we'll save the sexual questions for when we StarTalk with the ladies . . .
CrankyCritic: So what did you think, Cusack, when you got this script?
John Cusack: I had been looking around for something really wild and great and original. You read the genre pieces and they're not very good. When I had my theater company in Chicago, I could really do exploratory and radical stuff. I was hungry to do something like that in film. I called my agent and told him he had to get me something to read that wasn't crap. And he said [whispering] "you've got to read Being John Malkovich." He sounded like it was some kind of drug deal. So I read it and thought "the only way this will ever get made is if kid maxes out his dad's credit card and shoots it out of a van." It was fantastic. And there was no way it was ever going to get made.
CrankyCritic: Because it was about Malkovich?
John Cusack: I've always been a great admirer of his work. When I saw him do True West on stage, I thought "So that's what acting is. I'm going to have to try that some day." I knew and respected him. I thought John would never do it. Then I thought "Well, I know John. We did the Woody Allen movie together. And knew he was just sick enough to do it. He really has got a pretty wicked sense of humor. He probably would like how mean (the script) is and how mean it is to (his image). I thought there's got to be a chance he'll do it. So I just sort of waited And then I heard he was going to do it And it was OK. let's go.
CrankyCritic: Did you think the script was mean-spirited towards you?
John Cusack: (to John Malkovich) In a great way. In a very funny way. It's mean spirited towards everyone
John Malkovich: Yeah
John Cusack: No quarter given.
John Malkovich: Yeah, well, sort of. [laughs] But not in a way that bothered me. Not at all. I must say the first time I met Charlie a couple of years ago And he sort of sidled up to me And said "I really am a big fan of yours" And I said "Charlie, we don't have to do that. I read the script" [laughs] That never bothered me, anyway. I think it's fine.
John Cusack: John is such an unlikely target to be the object of, I don't know...
John Malkovich: Celebrity fascination.
John Cusack: To represent the celebrity culture. I mean he lives in Paris. You know what I'm saying? It probably would have been too easy to use someone who actually courts the limelight And has no integrity. It's even meaner to attack someone who doesn't court celebrity
John Malkovich: Maybe just a little
John Cusack: You couldn't get away, even in Paris.
Part 3: in which we get deep in to Image, and find out if Schwartz (Cusack's character bears Cranky's surname) is really a funny name . . .
CrankyCritic: One of the papers said you have a gift for self-mockery
John Malkovich: Well, you do too. When you get made fun of you have a defense and I don't really have a defense. It's the way I am. It's not pretty. That's it. I can't do anymore. I think I'm not aware of people's perceptions of "John Malkovich" at all. I'm not sure I know what it means but I am aware of myself and why I could be so incredibly irritating [laughs] And, so what? So's everybody else. I could mock other people who deserve it more than me. They just don't admit it and they can't take it. I wasn't raised like that. I can take it. I've been mocked every day of my life. I don't care.
John Cusack: When John says acting is like a portal to someone else, yes, it's that but it's obviously a portal into yourself. A version of you that could be that. So not only are you seeing through someone else but you're also using your imagination or part of your Self to...
John Malkovich: See how they see
John Cusack: You dig up that part of you and when you're doing that you can't make fun of yourself. You're pretty limited in what you can do
John Malkovich: mm-hmm
John Cusack: Because then you're on the defensive. You're one of those movie star people who just go and do a certain thing; if they're making fun of themselves, it's in a calculated way. You just gotta expose yourself and get run over
John Malkovich: [big laugh] It doesn't hurt!
John Cusack: I remember I was doing Bullets Over Broadway. That character is one of those pseudo-intellectual guys, and I'm not. In the beginning I was holding on to something and then I realized, waitaminute, I'm doing a Woody Allen movie. I play the fool. He plays the fool. Everybody plays the fool. When you give into that, it's fun. 'Cuz no one gets out of here without playing the fool.
CrankyCritic: Gee, actors take themselves too seriously . . .?
John Cusack: I think a hundred percent of most of 'em do.
John Malkovich: If they're mentally ill. I don't have the figures on that but it's in the ninetieth percentile. (He was joking. It's that dry humor thing -- cs) You do let go. It's like going into a lake or a swimming pool. Once you're in, the water is fine. If you sit there looking at it, it makes your toes cold and your testicles shrivel. Just go in and shut up and paddle around. The great writers, I think, aren't afraid to say we are ridiculous
John Cusack: Humans can be ridiculous. And what is the universal thing about that? Are we too vain? Do we lust too much? Are we insecure? Everybody has that. I think you can certainly be serious about the content of what you do
John Malkovich: If it's worthy of being serious about
John Cusack: Well you can try hard.
John Malkovich: Yeah
CrankyCritic: Cusack talked about piles of drek on his desks. Is there somewhere in either of your careers a role where you really felt good about the work that you did; a role you would like to say to the audience "please go back and take another look at this?"
John Cusack: No. The thing I feel most is that we shot a good film. I know it was there because I was there, looking at the other actors and it got lost in the cut. That's the overriding kind of great frustration. You put all that work into it and there are three phases: You have to write the script; You have to shoot it; You have to edit it, and if any one of the phases gets screwed up, the movie doesn't work. There are so many movies where you feel "God, we did two thirds of the work, man, why didn't you close it?" It's brutal work. You just have to keep chiseling away at it, fine tune the scenes. It's brutal, relentless work, editing a film. That's why there aren't that many good films.
Cranky Critic: And that's the reason you take on more than just acting?
John Cusack: Yeah. I think that and I've just gotten...
John Malkovich: But you're not afraid of the work.
John Cusack: Well, yeah. 'Cuz you've got to bust your ass right up to that point anyway. And I also had a desire to tell stories and be more involved in other areas.
Cranky Critic: Malkovich, will you direct?
John Malkovich: Yes, I'm about to direct "The Dancer Upstairs," next year.
Cranky Critic: Your first film?
John Malkovich: Of name, yes. Though if you had been on certain sets (Cusack starts to laugh). I did two two fashion films for my friend Bella Freud in London.
Cranky Critic: So. Finally. Cusack, is "Schwartz" an inherently funny name?
John Cusack: Yeah, I think so. The s-c-h combo. ssshhh--waaaa
Cranky Critic: Gee. Thanks.
Travolta, Cage Stump for Hughes
A biopic penned by the widow of Howard Hughes is apparently inspiring some of Hollywood's biggest names to curry serious favor. The New York Post reports that John Travolta and Nicolas Cage have attempted to ingratiate themselves with Terry Moore, the reclusive tycoon's widow, in hopes of landing the role.
The paper says avid flying nut Travolta bought one of Hughes' old planes (not the Spruce Goose) to try to get on Moore's good side, while Cage let her know that he had been taking flying lessons to be more believable in the part.
George Clooney and John Cusack also are reportedly interested in playing Hughes, as is Leonardo DiCaprio, although he's currently attached to a Michael Mann-directed production, one of more than a half-dozen Howard Hughes projects in the works.
Moore was married to the mogul-turned-germaphobe from 1949 to 1956.
Interview: John Cusack talks about celebrity, acting and the making of High Fidelity
Cusack in High Fidelity
HE MAY have starring roles in two of the best films of the year and been hailed as one of the greatest actors of his generation, but as he ambles into the room it's clear the news hasn't filtered through to whatever passes for a wardrobe department in the John Cusack household.
Celebrity camouflage for the streets of central London? Leftover props from his part as indie music obsessive Rob Gordon in his latest film, High Fidelity? Or just proof that Cusack is, as the legend growing around him suggests, so little fazed by the business of being a movie star that he will never, ever dress like one?
Dismissing the first and not recognising the T-shirt from the film, I'm edging towards the last. Before I can phone a friend, Cusack's own words bear me out.
''I was never interested in being an overly public person,'' he says. ''I think the more you expose yourself as a celebrity, the less interesting you are to watch in your work, because if you're putting yourself out there all the time, you're not holding anything back. And I've also seen the people who talk about their love lives in print invariably have doomed relationships with the person they're talking about.''
Which perhaps explains why Cusack is so criminally unforthcoming offscreen. No matter - his onscreen performance is the perfect atonement.
A fascinating actor to watch, he has brought a mixture of vulnerability and cruelty to his roles, whether as Craig Schwartz, the pony-tailed puppeteer in Spike Jonze's heroically strange Being John Malkovich, or Marty, the conscience-addled hitman in Grosse Pointe Blank.
The magic seems to lie somewhere in the interplay between his mouth (down-turned normally, but capable of the most disarming grin) and eyes which one critic famously described as having question marks in them and whose colour has been compared with Coca-Cola.
Facing him over a table, I scrutinise him with my own peepers (Irn Bru-colour, in case you're wondering). He's tall - six-three - and slim. Handsome, too, in that ''men can't see it, women can't miss it'' kind of way. Yesterday's five o'clock shadow, having dug in for the night, this morning blurs the lower half of his pale, oval face. The rumpled black hair, kinked backwards and sideway, is ruffled carelessly from time to time by a long white hand. (His, not mine).
Right now he's talking about the film of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity and its success in describing that strange psychosexual space which lies inside most thirtysomething men - the interface between girls, love and rare B-sides.
For Cusack, Rob Gordon is Everyman - albeit Everyman with a thing about early Smiths singles.
''I think that most males - most straight males, anyway - who read the book kind of see themselves in Rob - more than they'd like to, you know? I think most guys have been where Rob's been, maybe not as down-and-out or as poor, or as obsessive about music, but most guys have walked that path that Rob has and I think that's what made the book so great and so universal. And so universal for Americans too - he really gets inside the male mind in regards to matters of the heart.''
Helping with that universality for Americans bit is the fact that Cusack, who co-scripted the film with the Grosse Pointe Blank pairing of DV DeVincentis and Steve Pink, removed the story from Hornby's north London to his own stomping ground, Chicago.
Even the music has changed - while Hornby's paper protagonist was obsessed by American R&B, Cusack's version is a child of British punk, new wave and indie. Stiff Little Fingers, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Echo And The Bunnymen, The Clash and The Smiths are all namechecked, as are a host of 1990s bands. Scottish artists feature highly too, with Belle And Sebastian and The Beta Band mentioned by name.
In The Beta Band scene, Cusack surveys his shop and intones: ''I will now sell five copies of The Beta Band's Three EPs'', before playing Dry The Rain, from that album. ''They're the best new band I've heard in years,'' he says when asked how he really feels about the group. And Belle And Sebastian? ''I think Belle And Sebastian, if I'm not mistaken, is in the book.'' (He is. They aren't.)
''It was a perfect scene because Rob is very depressed and he goes into the store and Dick is playing this very soothing, melancholy music and then Barry comes in and breaks the space like a tornado.'' Barry's ''breaking the space'' involves shouting ''What is this shit?'' as the Glaswegians amble through Seymour Stein.
While the soundtrack is to be welcomed, the change of locale caused no small amount of grumbling this side of the Atlantic. Cusack is unrepentant.
''I know this might be shocking for a lot of British people but the transposition from England to Chicago was kind of effortless. When I read the book I knew where everything was in Chicago. I knew where the American Rob went to school and dropped out, where he used to spin records, I knew two or three different record shops when I was growing up that had a Rob, a Dick and a Barry in them.''
Stephen Frears, the film's British director, agrees. ''I thought it was a very good idea to set it in Chicago because it somehow takes a great weight off it,'' he says. ''I've spent a lot of my life getting out of north London - and it seemed to me that John and his two friends were writing a home movie about their lives in Chicago, which more or less paralleled Nick Hornby's life.''
Of course, director and star have something of a history. In 1990, Frears directed Cusack - then a precocious 24-year-old - in The Grifters, an adaptation of cult novelist Jim Thomson's story about a mother and son con team. With Anjelica Huston as his mother, Annette Bening as Cusack's slippery girlfriend and Martin Scorsese on voiceover duties, the film is viewed as a stone-cold classic.
It garnered Oscars for Huston and Frears, a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Bening, and it moved Cusack off the teen-flick list into the more fulfilling role of character actor.
It's a part he has played to perfection in many of the 45 films he's made since his big screen bow alongside Rob Lowe in the 1983 teen comedy, Class.
Born into an Irish Catholic family in the Chicago suburb of Evanston in 1966, Cusack's father, Dick, was an actor and documentary maker and his mother, Nancy, a teacher. His sisters, Joan and Susie are actors and Joan - or ''Joanie'' as he calls her - has a small role in High Fidelity.
Among the friends his parents brought home were Daniel and Philip Berrigan, two Jesuit brothers who later served time in prison because of their activities as peace protesters. Their exploits included breaking into an army office during the Vietnam war and burning draft papers and, more recently, trying to dismantle a warhead. Daniel Berrigan now works in an Aids hospice in New York.
So although governed by his parents' devout Catholicism, Cusack's was an unconventional, free-thinking childhood. No surprise, then, that he turned to acting via Chicago's Piven Theatre Workshop, run by the parents of one of his friends.
Bit parts in adverts lead to bigger and bigger film roles (in Rob Reiner's The Sure Thing, John Sayles' Eight Men Out) until Cusack hit the 1990s running with The Grifters.
So how did Stephen Frears feel teaming up with his protege again after a decade-long gap? ''I was shocked he didn't still call me 'Dad','' he deadpans. And does he go along with the views of British director, Mike Newell, who found Cusack a little too quick with his mouth on the set of Pushing Tin?
''I had experience of that,'' he says. ''They're buggers, Americans. They ask questions. They're not servile and grovelling like the English are.''
Whatever the reasons, the film works. The celebrity cameos - Tim Robbins, Lisa Bonet, a ''pre-Douglas'' Catherine Zeta-Jones and, in a bizarre dream sequence, Bruce Springsteen - certainly help, but mostly it's the relationship between the three men which provides the film's comic engine. It's a fact reflected in the constant exclamations of ''Oh my God, that's my life'' from most male audience members.
Jack Black, as the boorish Barry, is a revelation, as is Iben Hjelje as Laura, the girlfriend who walks out on Cusack early in the film.
Frears ''found'' Hjelje at the Berlin Film Festival where she starred in Mifune, one of the Dogme95 films. He says: ''I just went up and talked to her and I think she thought I was some sort of white slaver.'' Until then, he had despaired of finding the right woman to partner his star.
''If you look at the book a different way,'' he continues, ''the girl leaves him on page one and all he does for 250 pages is go on about her [a pretty fair summation of the film too, as it happens]. That's completely obsessive love. So you think 'Blimey, the woman who's going to make this bloke go on for 250 pages must be something special'.'' And after all that chasing, does he end up getting the girl?
Well, he is John Cusack, after all. Even if nobody's told his wardrobe.
Bazza
Cinema: Rob organizes his records in a biographical sequence. Do you do that? Do you connect certain songs with certain events in your life?
Cusack: Absolutely! I?ertain most men do that. Hornby?ook incorporates perfectly the love of the autobiographical music, especially in connection with successes and fiascos with women. I was determined to bring songs in connection with certain persons or certain life sections. If I hear a certain song, then certain memories in me arise. Such songs are like snapshots in a photo album.
Cinema: Did it restrict you in the script writing that the film is based on a novel?
Cusack: Only to the extent that the original material was so magnificent, that I wanted to include everything in order to preserve the style of the book. The characters in the book are so exactly described that we were able to incorporate it very easily into the script. If the film is successful, that is probably because of Hornby?ob than mine. The only large change that we undertook, was to transfer the movie from London to Chicago.
Cinema: What was better in Chicago?
Cusack: I know the Geography of Chicago better. We knew where someone like Rob would have his record store and where he would play his records. I could imagine where he would go if he?epressed. My knowledge of Chicago simplified and accelerated our decisions, and on the weekend I was able to see family and my sister.
Cinema: Did it please you that your father and your sister were in the movie also?
Cusack: My father visited on the set and Stephen stuck him in the minister costume.
Cinema: Were you involved in the beginning of the project?
Cusack: No, the rights to the book belonged to Disney. We had already collaborated with them on Grosse Pointe Blank, and they came to me and my partners with an offer to write the script.
Cinema: Stephen Frears was the number one choice as a director for High Fidelity. Did you have any objections or did you choose it just for that?
Cusack: His films Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and Prick Up Your Ears are city films. Moreover he has an evil humor and, films the unpleasant truths about people. Because of this he was right for the film. He is very passionate and the more I thought about it, the more better I decided it was for me.
Cinema: Which methods do you use as a script writer and actor in order to design your role?
Cusack: It? puzzle. You have to see yourself again and again in the book in order to extract the most. We left the dialogue rather open and improvised. We wanted to create a characteristic world in Rob?ecord store.
Cinema: Done both in in the book and in the film are many Top-five lists: what are your five favorite records?
Cusack: I?ot a list-maker. It hurts me deeply to reduce things to the five most important. "London Calling" of The Clash would be the best. That is a classic record. And there?pproximately 50 other records, that would make the Top five.
Cinema: Does the movie address the current music scene for you?
Cusack: Yes, and some music from Chicago was put in the film. A brilliant scottish group is the Beta Band. Smog is also crazy, Plush and the Royal Trucks are pretty wild.
Cinema: How involved were you in the development of the Soundtrack?
Cusack: I chose all of them but two.
The author: Hornby
Nick Hornby lives in Northern London, only a cat?eap away from his favorite football team "The arsenal". He studied at Cambridge University. He once worked as a teacher. Before his first novel, he wrote for magazines and newspapers like "Esquire," "London Sunday Times," "The Independent," "GQ," "Elle," "Time," "The New Republic," "Vogue" and "Premiere".
His first two books, "Fever Pitch" and "High Fidelity," were number one on the bestseller list in England. "High Fidelity" became a favorite of the critics on both sides of the Atlantic. "High Fidelity" isn?is only book to find success in the film business; last year "Fever Pitch" was acquired by Robert DeNiro?irm Tribeca Films and New Line Cinema recently acquired the film rights for ?ut a Boy??r nearly three million dollars.
Cosmo catches up with the sure-to-be hit man: John Cusack
- Martha Frankel
Last year's Grosse Pointe Blank hired-assassin heartthrob John Cusack has landed plunk in the middle of Hollywood's major-buzz best-seller book-to-movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. And according to industry talk, this much-anticipated movie is going to make Johnny even more of a sure thing.
The minute John Cusack raised that boom box over his head outside lone Skye's window in 1989's Say Anything, his image was seared forever into the hearts and minds of a whole generation of women. His Lloyd Dobler, a sweet teenage misfit, had wooed and won the beautiful class brain. And Cusack played the role with such naked yearning that there wasn't a girl out there who didn't fall for him.
Cusack was 23 when he made Say Anything. Now, some eight years later, he says that working on that film is still one of his most treasured memories: "Lloyd Dobler was simply the best part of who I could ever be."
And so who is John Cusack, really?
He smiles that killer smile. "You know how in The Grifters, my character, the con man Roy Dillon, had such it dark heart'? I'd have to say I'm right smack in the middle of Lloyd and Roy."
Although he did solid work in, to name a few, The Grifters, Bob Roberts, and Bullets Over Broadway, for a while, Cusack seemed to have trouble finding his place as all adult onscreen. None of those films had the impact of his earlier work. But last year's smash Grosse Pointe Blank changed all that. He brought to the dark comedy the same sweet, be fuddled cockiness that his earlier films had hinged on, and brought it lip to date.
Today, in the lobby of a New York City hotel, the 31-year-old actor is wearing his usual black from head to toe. While most stars look different in person--usually shorter and not as good-looking--Cusack is exactly what you'd expect: tall and striking. But as smooth and fluid as he is onscreen, he is surprisingly fidgety in person. He bites his cuticles, rocks back and forth in his chair, and nibs his eyes with closed fists. On someone else this would be annoying; but on Cusack, it's just fine.
We're cramined around a tiny table that call barely contain its, because the lobby is the only place in the hotel where Cusack can smoke. Although they were bending over backward to make him happy in the restaurant ("Can we get you some coffee, Mr. Cusack?" every waiter in the place asked with a big smile), Cusack is an unapologetic smoker who would rather sit in the midst of strangers while conducting an interview than be denied his nicotine. And it doesn't seem to faze him that most of those strangers have something to say to him. "Loved Grosse Pointe Blank," a middle-aged mail tells him in passing. "Hey, thought you were great in that reunion movie," a guy waiting for a job interview says. Women walking by just stop in their tracks and smile his way.
Johnny be Good
Soon, Cusack will be receiving compliments for his latest screen role, in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, costarring Kevin Spacey and Jude Law. Based on the best-seller by John Berendt, the film is directed by Clint Eastwood ("a true gentleman," says Cusack). When asked what kind of research he did for the role of the journalist who becomes involved in a murder investigation in Savannah, Georgia, Cusack smiles and points toward the tape recorder that sits in front of him. "I've been watching you guys watching me for years. I kept all that in mind," says Cusack, who cowrote Grosse Pointe Blank. "Plus, I am a writer, so I drew on that too."
Seemingly at ease in the world, Cusack says it was his own 10th high-school reunion that gave him a serious case of anxiety. "We had a bet that if we got the money to finance Grosse Pointe Blank, we'd go to our high-school reunion," he says, "we" being longtime friends Steve Pink and DV DeVincentis, his partners in New Crime Productions. "And to our horror, we got the money. DV said he didn't have to go because he was a year behind us. But that was bull ... he should have gone too."
And what was it like to go back there being the most famous person in his class? "I definitely came back like Gatsby," he says. "It was everything I hoped it would be--and I mean hoped in a very black-comedy sense. It was really sick, because most people were just..." Here he mimes smoking a joint, snorting some coke, having a drink. "To them, it must have been it blur. Just like high school! But I went and said, 'All right, I have to pity attention to this.' And it paid off, because we got some great things for the movie that I wouldn't have thought of. There was this girl I knew, and I was wondering what it was going to be like to see her, and then I get there and she has this baby and is just as happy as can be." In Grosse Pointe Blank, there's a scene in which Cusack's hit man is enamored of a-wide-eyed baby.
Other equally memorable moments in the film were improvised. "Making my sister [Joan Cusack played the hit man's assistant] laugh is still one of the best things I can do. There's a scene where she's wearing this jacket with epaulets, and I say, 'Hey, Sergeant Pepper, back off.' That line wasn't scripted, and when I said it for the first time, this smile started in Joan's eyes and then just spread to the rest of her face before she burst into laughter."
The Family That Plays Together Stays Together
Cusack was the fourth of five kids born to a filmmaker father (mostly documentaries and industrial films made for companies) and a math-teacher mother in Evanston, Illinois, a wealthy Chicago suburb. He and his siblings began acting early; John was just 8 when he joined the Piven Theatre Workshop. Joan, the second oldest, has appeared in seven movies with John, starting with Class in 1983. This past fall, she stole In & Out as the jilted bride-to-be with a weight problem.
To this day, the very loyal Cusack is friends with Jeremy Piven, the son of his childhood acting coach. Piven played the easygoing real estate agent in Grosse Pointe Blank ("Ten years, man!") and has a continuing role as the doctor cousin on Ellen. When asked what makes Cusack tick, Piven says, "I think the one thing Johnny is afraid of is mediocrity, of failure, of not being the best he can Possibly be." Cusack's impressive filmography backs this up. By the time he graduated high school in 1984, he had made several films, including The Sure Thing and Class.
The Chicago native, who swore he'd never move to California, did just that five years ago. "I know," he says, raising his hand in defeat. "I kept saying that I'd never live in L.A., and I didn't think I would. But that's where the work is, and I ended up making a lot of friends there, and my old friends moved out to Los Angeles too. And also, I think when you're famous, its hard to live in a small town. Not that Chicago is a 'small' town, but when I'm there, which I am it lot because I love it and I still have an apartment there, people stare at me. It's like I'm more famous in Chicago. In L.A. and New York, nobody gives a f ---; in a big city, you can quietly do your thing."
The Tall Guy
For the most part, Cusack doesn't try to blend into the crowd. At 6 feet 2 inches, that's almost impossible anyway. He says that be goes wherever he wants, except to sports bars ("You know how guys can be when they've had a few too many and they're in the midst of some sports madness"), and his only nod toward anonymity is wearing a baseball cap when he goes to a movie or out on a Saturday night. "It's not that nobody recognizes me," he explains. "It just gives me that extra second before they start to talk."
But he often makes forays back to Chicago to visit his family, which now inch ides Joan's 7-month-old baby boy, Dylan John. "She better have another baby," Cusack says of his sister, "because if she doesn't, this one is going to be spoiled rotten. He's the first baby in the family, and it's not unusual for 12 adults to be standing around, smiling at him, and waiting to do anything he needs, which right now is little more than changing his diaper."
Cusack says he would love, kids of his own, but not until he's "very settled in a relationship--I'm not the single father kind of guy." And no, he's, not about to tell us if there is someone on the horizon who has mother-to-be potential.
Cusack is notoriously tight-lipped about his personal life--don't even think about asking him about his rumored relationships with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil costar Alison Eastwood (yes, Clint's daughter), Grosse Pointe Blank costar Minnie Driver, or Claire Forlani, who stars opposite Brad Pitt in next summer's Meet Joe Black. Cusack is much more comfortable talking about "snarfing."
"Do you remember snarfing?" he asks enthusiastically. "It's where you make a hole in a beer can, pop the top, and swallow the whole thing down in one gulp. And then you smash the empty can against your forehead! I was like, 18, 19, making The Sure Thing with [director] Rod Reiner. I know it sounds crazy now, but at the time, it made a lot of sense to both me and [costar] Tim Robbins. We used to have theme snarfs. One of them entailed watching Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, like Conan the Barbarian, and every time we felt like there was a profoundly stupid line, we would have to snarf. Well, I was doing that one weekend, and I cut my forehead. Next day on the set, Rob said to me, 'Johnny, what were you doing?' I was so seared that he would be mad, but I told him about Conan and he was great about it."
There were other crazy moments too. When a leather-clad, spike-haired Cusack was pulled over for a minor traffic infraction some years ago in Los Angeles, the police officer discovered he had an outstanding parking ticket and hauled him off to jail. Cusack soon found himself handcuffed to a bench with a furious cop pacing in front of him. "He said, 'Let me tell you something, boy. You're in my house now. You're mine.' And he started stepping on my wrists. And I said, 'I pay a lot of taxes, I have a lawyer, and I'm gonna sue your ass.' He was getting madder and madder, until mother cop recognized me and told him who I was. The first cop came back over and started kissing my ass. And then the guy next to me, this crack addict, starts asking me how he could get an agent. It was so surreal." When Cusack was eventually released from custody, he was so happy to be out, he let the whole matter drop.
At this point in his life, Cusack seems content. "I feel very blessed, very fortunate, very happy. I love my work, I love my friends, I love my family. There was a period when I didn't work for about two years when I was about 25, 26, and I couldn't imagine what I would do with my life and that was scary. But now I have other things I love. I'm a pretty good kick boxer; I'm a pretty good writer; there are things I could fall back on. And you know how it is--the minute you realize that your options are unlimited, things just start falling into place all around you."
And then Cusack, who claims not to be superstitious, knocks a wooden table two times, just to be sure.
In John We Trust
- Mike D'Angelo
All others pay lip service to love, but John Cusack (whether trigger happy in Grosse Pointe Blank or moony through Say Anything...) is one romantic hero who always risks his heart.
Sincerity has become hopelessly out of fashion. For two decades popular culture has prostrated itself before the altar of irony, from Steve Martin's stand-up to David Letterman's parody of the talk show. When a critic, myself included, uses the word sincere in a review, it's generally by way of suggesting that the work is agonizingly dull.
So what's John Cusack, our most sincere film actor, to do? Here's a guy who's made a career out of playing characters who are incapable of dissembling, trapped in a world they never made. While his peers wink off camera, Cusack, no matter how glib the picture may be, is totally involved in the moment. It's to his everlasting credit as a performer that we still care.
One of Cusack's first starring roles, in the teen romp Better Off Dead, finds his forthright persona already in place. The film, which hit the video sales charts last month, when FoxVideo sold it for $ 9.98, is a passable hit-and-miss gag-fest, but at the eye of the hurricane of wackiness is a boy who keeps trying to kill himself after his shallow girlfriend dumps him. That's Cusack, comparatively bland but immediately likable as suicidal Lane.
Lloyd Dobler, the protagonist of Say Anything..., is the quintessential Cusack role. In the first 90 seconds, one of Lloyd's friends advises him to stay away from Diane Court (Ione Skye), the object of his desire, noting "We don't wanna see you get hurt." "I want to get hurt!" replies Lloyd. I don't know a single guy who doesn't identify with Lloyd's tongue-tied anguish, or a gal who doesn't swoon at the memory of Lloyd's boombox serenade. The film's only flaw, and one previously seen in Better Off Dead and 1985's The Sure Thing, is that Cusack's love interest isn't one tenth as interesting as he is. Why would Lloyd go gaga over the pretty but boring Diane when the available, acerbic Corey (Lili Taylor) is in the corner strumming her guitar?
Ironically, one of Cusack's first adult performances, in Stephen Frears' adaptation of Jim Thompson's The Grifters, is the antithesis of sincerity, at least superficially. His Roy Dillon is a small-time con, so honesty isn't exactly at a premium. At the same time, Roy's ferocious, oedipally charged relationship with his mother Lilly (Anjelica Huston) knows no politesse; the two may be liars, but they're brutally frank with each other. Huston walks away with the movie, but Cusack holds his own, using his trustworthy face as a duplicitous mask and as a raw wound aching to be probed. At the time, it seemed as if an Oscar nod might not be far off.
Sadly, most of Cusack's work since has been decidedly blah--not a major liability, since few saw the films anyway. (Anyone recall the aptly titled Money for Nothing?) True, he did play the lead in Woody Allen's critically acclaimed Bullets Over Broadway, but his turn amounts to a so-so Woody impression, with Allen's trademark neurotic whining and gesticulation. He doesn't embarrass himself, but his emotional candor and Allen's tics mix like oil and water. Ultimately the film works in spite of rather than because of his performance.
What a relief, then, to see him back at the top of his form in Grosse Pointe Blank, directed by George Armitage (Miami Blues) from a script cowritten by Cusack. The picture's conceit--a hired killer schmoozing at his 10-year high school reunion--is fine, and it's no surprise that when asked what he's been up to, Cusack's murderous (but genial) Martin Blank invariably tells the truth and is assumed to be joking. Better still, his paramour, Debi, is played by Minnie Driver, whose canny, beautifully modulated performance is (finally!) a match for Cusack's own considerable wit and charisma. The two are a study in sarcastic sincerity, and the picture's best moments are those in which Blank struggles to justify his livelihood. "A psychopath kills for no reason," he tells a hysterical Debi. "I killed for money. It's a job." As Blank, Cusack is both proud and remorseful. And the amazing thing is that as usual, you believe him.
Two for the Show
(Newsday - October 23, 1988)
- Patrick Pacheco
'Eight Men Out' boosted John Cusack's career as 'Broadcast News' did his sister Joan's. They are merely the top of a family pyramid that started at a Chicago theater workshop.
WHEN HER children were youngsters, recalls Nancy Cusack, they often put on plays in the backyard. Ann, as the oldest, always assigned herself the most glamorous role. For example, Cinderella, if that were the case, for which she would then cast her sister, Joanie, as the ugly stepdaughter, her brother Billy as the prince charming, and her brother John as the dog. "John was just about three or four," says the mother of five living in Evanston, Ill. "And one time, he was coming out from behind the bushes, shouting 'arf, arf', when he suddenly stopped, stood up, and said, 'I'm sick of always being the dog' and walked off. I guess he showed them'"
Indeed, both John and Joan Cusack have long since outstripped their modest beginnings. John, the youngest son of Nancy and Richard Cusack, a documentary film maker, made his debut at 16, in the 1983 comedy, "Class," and 11 other films followed in rapid succession, including "The Sure Thing," "Eight Men Out," and "Tapeheads," which opens Friday. His older sister Joan was featured in the film "My Bodyguard," later gained prominence in "Broadcast News" and "Married to the Mob," and recently completed three new movies: Mike Nichols' "Working Girl," Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything" and Paul Brickman's "Men Don't Leave."
THESE TWO are merely the top of an acting family pyramid that includes their father, Richard, who appeared, most notably, as the judge in "Eight Men Out." It was in that film that he got to admonish his real-life son with the line, "Sit down and shut up or I'll hold you in contempt of court" ("I had no motivational problems with that'" he says). As for the rest of the family, sister Ann is in musical theater, brother Bill is pursuing a career on the stage and the youngest, Susie, is a ballet student.
While giving birth to an acting dynasty was hardly what Nancy Cusack intended, she chalks up her children's ambitions to Irish pluck, charm and verbosity - and the proximity of the Piven Theatre Workshop. The local stage group proved to be a hatchery for the Cusacks' three oldest children as well as their father, who stumbled into acting when family friend Byrne Piven - having seen him "hamming around" at parties - cast him as an Irish bellcaptain in Alan Gross' "The Man in 605," the 1980 stage comedy that eventually moved to New York.
"I think I learned most everything I know about acting there," says Joan Cusack in a phone interview from her Chicago apartment. "We started early - I was 10 - to develop our instincts, to play games that forced us into more compelling human interactions."
It was at the Piven workshop, says John in a separate interview in a New York hotel, that he first learned to explore all the facets of his personality. Rankling at the film world's initial attempts to type him as "a charming young bore," the Chicagoan jumped at the opportunity to play sleazy schemer Ivan in the satirical comedy, "Tapeheads." Co-starring Tim Robbins, the film is about two friends who slide into the video music business on the oily charm of Cusack's would-be entrepreneur, a man he describes as someone with "very little talent, very little intelligence and lots of ambition. I really get to lower myself into the slime on this one," he says.
From Ivan Alexeev to Buck Weaver, Cusack enjoys playing different points on the moral compass not only for the versatility but also because, indirectly at least, they express political and social beliefs that were a strong part of his upbringing. "My parents are typical liberal Democrats," he says. "Hopefully not annoyingly so, because, next to a conservative, there's nothing worse than a bleeding-heart liberal. But they were genuinely concerned with human rights and the peace movement."
"Our values were geared toward the dignity of the individual," says Nancy Cusack. "John made his first three films while living at home, and since Richard was in the business, he was able to give the children a perspective on it. We all agreed that John wouldn't, for example, do any scripts that were gratuitously violent or sexually exploitive of women."
RAISED TO BE politically and socially aware, both John and John are ambivalent about the rewards - and pitfalls - of stardom. "I'm definitely embarrassed to be in the entertainment industry, sometimes," says Joan. "It's easy to get caught up in the ego part of it. But Dad wisely suggested that we reach outside ourselves, to get a fuller perspective on the world, so that, as actors, we could bring different experiences to bear on our roles."
The actress says she looks for personal resonance for each part she plays, whether it be the production assistant in "Broadcast News," the X-ray technician who is Jessica Lange's neighbor in "Men Don't Leave," the Staten Island secretary in "Working Girl," or the abandoned working-class wife in "Say Anything," who has a tense relationship with her kick-boxer brother, played by John Cusack. As to the latter role, she says, "I'm certainly not a morose person and there's no tension between John and me, far from it, but I can empathize with all these women. I think you have to allow yourself, sometimes at risk, to be used as a tool to articulate what people just can't express."
The actress says she doesn't mind the lack of glamor - or size - to her character roles. "It's certainly nice to look good on film, but glamor's not the idea of it," she says. "And the size doesn't really bother me. Well, I guess it does sometimes. But I think you have to really believe everything you say and it's difficult to find parts like that."
JOAN CUSACK learned early on that it was going to be hard to find parts, period. For every two scripts she was offered, her brother John would get 16. Nonetheless, they say that they've never felt competitive with each other or with their siblings. A closely knit family, they find it reassuring to be able to compare notes with someone who understands more than a friend might.
"She's great, my sister," says John. "I don't feel at all competitive. We don't go up for the same jobs for one thing. If I feel competitive at all, it's with myself. Not living up to my potential is my nightmare."
To this end he has already directed his own work for the local public television station in Chicago, and recently formed a new theater company, New Criminals '88, which is dedicated to presenting new and challenging plays. Among the company's dozen or so members are his brother Bill and sister Susie, whom he directed in its premiere production, "Alakazam After the Dog Wars," which he describes as a "traveling freak show," that satirizes the military industrial complex. Joan, at the same time, returned to her theater roots in "Road" at LaMama.
Both Joan and John live in Chicago, partly because it's more civilized and cheaper than New York or L. A., but also because they like to toddle in the toddlin' town. "We really like to party," says John. "You shouldn't get the impression we're all that serious." While he acknowledges the important issues of Roland Joffe's new film, "Fatman and Littleboy," (he stars opposite Paul Newman and Laura Dern as a scientist developing the first nuclear bombs), he likewise praises the demented silliness of "Tapeheads."
"Acting can be both a great means of self-expression or an infantile need for attention," he says. "In my case, it's both. The thing is not to be pretentious about it. It's good to have friends and family around to knock you down a couple of notches or support you if need be."
"We got a little nervous when our children went into acting," says Nancy Cusack, "We always told them, as the writer Joseph Campbell says, 'Pursue your bliss.' If it didn't work out, then they could get practical."
Slowly, quietly, John Cusack has become a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. The 33-year-old actor, a veteran of some 40 films, had already managed the perilous transition from teen star to adult actor by focusing on his craft and by working with top directors. But only in passing on a string of brainless high-profile pics, excepting the cartoonish Con Air, and staying the course with more cerebral, more personal, and edgier fare like Being John Malkovich has Cusack proved himself to be a rarity: a creatively and commercially successful actor.
His latest film, High Fidelity, directed by Stephen Frears, only adds to that reputation. Adapted from Nick Hornby's wildly popular 1995 novel, the whimsical romantic comedy envisions Cusack as Rob Gordon, an obsessive 30-something slacker and record store owner who can't decide whether he loves his girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), enough to grow up ?? whether he's grown up enough to love her. Using pop songs as an emotional salve, Rob embarks on a quest to reconnect with his old girlfriends and in the process comes to terms with his midlife panic. Cusack, as co-producer and co-writer along with Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis (the team that collaborated on Grosse Pointe Blank), has assembled a fantastic supporting cast that includes Tim Robbins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, and his sister, Joan Cusack. The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, even dispenses some bluesy advice in a fever dream of a cameo.
It's an impressive ensemble, and it's indicative of the respect Cusack has gained during his years in the business. Typically seen as a kind of cool underdog by his fans, who seem to have grown up with him, Cusack's now on the verge of being a player. He spoke to Mr. Showbiz recently about his integrity, its link to his audience, and that gaping divide between men and women.
This is a perfect role for you. Did you seek out the rights to the book?
I'd done Grosse Pointe Blank for Disney ?? had a great relationship. They sent the book to us and said, "Would you guys adapt the book? You could produce it and do the lead role." So I said, "I don't know what I did in a former life to deserve this gift."
Had you read the book?
No, I hadn't, but I had read some of Nick's stuff. It was one of those books I'd been meaning to read forever, but I hadn't yet.
I think every guy who reads High Fidelity must identify with it.
Oh, yeah. We don't want to admit how much we're all like Rob, but I think the genius of the book is that most people have been where he's been and done what he's done. He's a pretty interesting character because for as much as a lazy slacker he is, he also has a capacity to be really honest, so that kind of makes him very redeemable.
Redeemable, yes, but he does some pretty rotten things.
It's almost like people are upset that he's a jerk and they don't really want to like him or the movie but they do. They're conflicted because he doesn't seem like your normal kind of Hollywood protagonist. I say, well, do you really think that Hugh Grant is like the guy he plays in Notting Hill? Nothing against those kind of movies, they're just kind of pure, romantic fantasies, but if you're going to make a movie about relationships and guys dealing with commitment, I think it makes it more interesting if he's really human and has problems and flaws and all that stuff. People can really relate to that. The people who unequivocally love the movie appreciate the fact that it's so honest.
In our minds, we always think we're the good guy even if we're not.
I know, that's part of what growing and maturing is all about. Everybody makes the same mistakes and sooner or later you learn from them.
Your script hewed pretty closely to the book.
There were three writers ??, Steve Pink, and D.V. DeVincentis ??d we all loved the book and we could all relate to Rob in different ways. We had such great source material and we really wanted to stay true to it. Really go after the meaty, really painfully honest parts of the book. We related to it, even though we're from America, as much as I think any Englishman would.
You weren't worried about moving the location?
Not really, because we called Nick Hornby and he gave us his blessing. The things that are most interesting about the book really have nothing to do with its geographic location. The most important location is dead center inside a guy's mind and heart. Nick agreed with that. The only people who wouldn't agree with it are from the neighborhood where the book is set. But there's a reason it's a best seller all over.
Why choose Chicago?
Because I knew Chicago and I knew where everything [would be] set. I knew where he used to spin records, where he'd live in Wicker Park, where he went to drink when he was depressed. I grew up there with my partners, so we just saw how to do the book there. I think, somehow, if you put it in L.A., it's a different movie.
Isn't there some controversy about a fourth screenwriter whom you didn't mention?
There's not really any controversy at all. He admitted to us and the president of the studio and everyone else that he deserved no credit, that he didn't write one word, he didn't even do a spell-check. I mean, we never spoke to him about it, ever, until he decided he was going to go for the money. He admitted it. I think he thought that if he would admit that he was a pig it would get him off the hook, but that's not how it works.
Do you this specifically male movie appeals to women?
I think probably more so to women, in a weird way. Women really love it because they've always wanted to know why men have such problems staying put and committing. Like, "What is going on in their heads?" Nick Hornby, and hopefully us, we got out some of the truth about that. It seems like it would be a good date movie, but you might get into an interesting conversation when you're driving home.
That could be a good thing.
Yeah, I mean, that stuff's always a good thing. Sometimes it's a little uncomfortable at first because we don't like to admit that stuff, but it's probably better for us if we do.
So why do us guys drag our feet?
I think it's sort of somehow that we have a very romantic version of love. So we always think that there's going to be a woman who might come around the corner where that rush of the first two months, that will be there all the time, you know?
I think guys are about five years behind women.
I think somehow that women are just kind of more pragmatic than men about it. They'll look at a guy and they know that they have love and that it's going to turn into something else. They look at it as kind of a ledger sheet of his good and bad qualities, and they say, "All right, this guy, he's worth it. Now let's get to work on this or not."
And guys?
Whereas guys, once you've been with a woman, I don't care if she's the most beautiful woman in the world, at a certain point, they become just a person and new people seem exciting. We just can't deal with the fact that, you know, this is going to take some work and we're going to have to lose the possibility of that rush the first or second time you see a girl.
How did you assemble such a great cast?
Well, we just asked them. They said yes. [Laughs]
Easy enough.
Yeah, I mean, some of them are old friends, so maybe that helped. Some of them thought the part would be fun and that it was a good project. Whatever it was, we certainly scored.
And Bruce Springsteen?
Well, I'd known him. I called him up and asked him, fully expecting him to say no and that he'd think I was crazy, but I had to throw the Hail Mary. So I called him and said, "This is probably a one-in-a-thousand shot, but you wouldn't want to play yourself having a conversation with my character in my character's head, would you? It's a movie about music, it's very reverential to your music, and it's kind of a music lover's book. You'll probably just say no and say that we never had this conversation and I'll see you when you play Los Angeles." And he said yes; I couldn't believe it.
Did you have a big hand in assembling the soundtrack?
Yeah. There are so many great songs in the movie. We could only put 12 or 13 on the soundtrack, so we're going to have to release another set. I think the Velvet Underground, Love, Bob Dylan, The Beta Band, those are all wonderful songs. Elvis Costello, Smog, Sterolab, I really like them all.
You seem really in touch with your generation.
That sounds like a good thing.
Cinematically speaking, I mean; your films seem to capture your generation. Have you set out to do that?
I don't think that's an intention. But you just try to make them from the heart. You try to sort of address things that you're going through or that you believe are common between you and other people. If you try to do films that have ideas and themes, stuff that has an uncompromised quality to it, and if you really can try to fight to get those through, people seem to relate to it. [And] it might have some resonance because you weren't just trying to make a buck, you were trying to be honest. I just try to make films that I believe in and address what it's like to be alive now.
Do you come across honest scripts often?
Sometimes you do. Sometimes you come across scripts that are moving in that direction and then you try to really bring that out, you try to work with the director and the writers. You say, "I understand what you're trying to say, but it's too abbreviated, let's explore this idea a little further, what if we did this here?" Being John Malkovich was a script that didn't need any work at all, it was just all on the page. And those things are like gold, you know, it's just like finding liquid gold.
Is the scarcity of honest scripts the reason you've taken to writing?
Yeah, I mean, I also always wanted to make films and be a filmmaker, so it was a plan of mine. But I also think that I've been able to write two of my best roles. And then when you're writing it, you don't have to worry about the politics of trying to transform a script into something else. You can really just say what you want.
How does writing affect your acting?
It makes you very keenly aware of structure, gets you deeper into the nuts and bolts of telling stories and balancing things out. When you're writing for yourself, on the day that you're shooting, you can kind of disrespect the script in a healthy way ??ke off the handcuffs, get a little freer with the text. You don't have to worry about the writers freaking out.
Have you thought about directing your own scripts?
Yeah, I'd like to. I'm just not in a rush to do it because it's going to take two years out of your life, so you'd better make sure you're ready to go.
Because you make a lot of personal films, do you think your audience knows you better than, say, an action star?
I don't know. I think you can know [an actor's] aesthetic from what you see on-screen. I mean, they may not be like the character, but you know something from what they're trying to express. I think you probably know much more from watching someone's films than you do from listening to them on a talk show or, you know, from reading an interview. I think the work is actually much more honest and revealing than how people present themselves in the public eye.
Have you had difficulty maintaining your integrity?
Well, sure, but I've only done a couple of films where I thought, "All right, this is a political move, this is a move to get me somewhere else." There's no shame in that. But most of the time I always thought they could be good, even when they weren't.
Did you employ any strategy to go from actor to writer?
No, it's so humbling trying to write something that you just have to sort of go to work on and scratch and claw and really try to get it done. Each project is kind of like climbing a mountain, trying to get it right. So no, my goal is just to try to do good work and let the chips fall where they may.
Will there be a Grosse Pointe Blank sequel?
Yeah, we're thinking about it. We want to do it because people really love that movie and I loved playing that character. It was such fun. So as soon as I can write it, I'll do it.
Roberts, Cusack, Zeta-Jones May Be Sweethearts
Julia Roberts and John Cusack are not lovers. But they might play lovers in a movie, and if you think that's steamy, get a load of this: Catherine Zeta-Jones may join them!
Basically, we're talking about the fire salsa of spicy romantic triangles.
Variety reports that the trio of stars is orbiting a project being developed by former 20th Century Fox and Disney studio chief Joe Roth, who recently launched his own production and distribution company, Revolution Studios. The film, America's Sweethearts, is based on a script by Billy Crystal and Peter Tolan (who collaborated with Harold Ramis and Ken Lonergan on the screenplay for Crystal's Analyze This).
Cusack and Zeta-Jones would play the titular duo, married movie stars whose marriage ?? the Bruce-and-Demi, Meg-and-Dennis mode ??s come apart at the seams. And yet, wouldn't you know it, they just wrapped a big film together and, well, someone's gotta get the word out about that sucker. Crystal may also star in the film as a publicist who attempts to keep the marriage alive for promotional purposes, even as Cusack's character is falling for his wife's newly slimmed-down sister, played by Roberts.
Cusack and Zeta-Jones played former lovers earlier this year in the sardonic 30-something romantic comedy High Fidelity. Cusack and Roberts have crossed career paths just once, in Robert Altman's The Player.
Roth, whose fledgling studio has a number of projects on its 2001 docket ??cluding Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down and The Chambermaid, John Hughes' first directorial endeavor since 1991's Curly Sue ??y direct Sweethearts himself. If the stars involved all sign deals, production could commence in January.
Pearl Girl for Cusack, More Casting News
She may look serene, but actress Kate Beckinsale could likely be next on the list of well-schooled female thespians from England to take America's box offices by storm. Minnie Driver, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Emma Thompson all began in pedigreed British theaters and BBC specials, only to later charm stateside moviegoers.
Beckinsale, a striking, 25-year-old brunette ??o, until now, has mostly appeared in indies like the British rural comedy Cold Comfort Farm and The Last Days of Disco, in which she appeared as a knowing disco diva prowling Manhattan ?? headed skyward. The actress is currently filming Pearl Harbor with Ben Affleck and is in final talks to star as John Cusack's true love in the romantic comedy Serendipity, relates the Hollywood Reporter.
Beckinsale will also appear in the upcoming Golden Bowl, a Merchant-Ivory project that also features the saucy, period-piece moves of Uma Thurman and Nick Nolte.
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Australian actor Guy Pearce got his start playing a preening drag queen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but the last few years have seen him in full-on testosterone mode.
The square-jawed lad garnered rave reviews for his performances in L.A. Confidential and, more recently, Rules of Engagement. He's now poised to join Frequency's Jim Caviezel in the big-budget action flick The Count of Monte Cristo. The classic tale of a sailor banished to a remote island (no Gilligan jokes, please) is due to start shooting in July in Ireland.
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Those anxious to see the King of Smarmy Men's Roles, Peter Gallagher, follow up his doozy as a self-indulgent, adulterous real estate agent in American Beauty will have to wait a little longer. Gallagher was scheduled to assume the part of attorney Hunter Lasky on the upcoming TNT series The Bull, but bowed out after shooting moved from New York to Los Angeles.
The Hollywood Reporter names Stanley Tucci as Gallagher's replacement. No doubt the Emmy winner's lack of hair will lend credibility to The Bull, a show about a stressed-out lawyer (Tucci) who leads a crack team of bloodletting investment bankers. The original show kicks off Aug. 15.
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Since we're talking Tucci, it's worth noting that Oliver Platt ??o was part of the ensemble cast in Tucci's Ship of Fools ??st signed his own TV deal. Platt, whose face usually draws the "Now where have I seen that guy before?" question in theaters nationwide, has been cast as an investigative reporter in a new NBC drama, Deadline.
Platt (that's him in Ready to Rumble, Bulworth, and Lake Placid) followed Texas journalist Brian Karem around to get a feel for the character, says the New York Daily News' Mitchell Fink. Karem is a broadcast reporter who went to jail in 1988 instead of disclosing his sources in a murder case.
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