I’m not sure what’s gotten into John Cusack, but he’s lashing out against Hollywood, sort of. In a refreshing burst of honesty, Cusack recently admitted to The Guardian “I’ve made 10 good films.” He continues, “I'm sure you know which ones they are. The ones that suck I tend to blank out. It's like I never even made them.”
He doesn’t say which ten out of the fifty or so he’s done, but here’s my list: Sixteen Candles, Stand By Me, Grosse Point Blank, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Identity, 1408 and… er… actually ten might be kind of generous. Someone remind me, why do we like John Cusack again?
Basically, it sounds like Cusack is simply getting sick and tired of playing the same wisecracking slacker. He says it’s because those are the only roles he gets offered, but I’ve been assuming it’s simply because he’s a one dimensional actor who only plays, well, himself in every movie he’s cast in. Says Cusack, “There's this brand that they think I am, and I get sent stuff that corresponds to that. I have to do it. It's not like there are 10 projects on offer at any one time, and six of them are brilliant.” The early word on his new movie Grace is Gone is that he turns his persona completely upside down and melts into a completely different character for a change. If that’s true, then maybe Cusack will get out of whatever mid-life funk it is that he seems to be in.
It is nice though to hear someone talk so openly about being a big-name actor and Cusack really seems to care about what he’s doing. He says, “If I'm in something that I think is kinda good, it stays with me like a fever dream for a long time afterwards. I don't recall the finished product so much as the feeling of making it.” To read the rest of what happens when John Cusack decides to say anything, check out The Guardian article here.
