Remember that nerdy kid from Six Candles? That was pretty much the first time John Cusack graced our screens, and from then on became a heartthrob in films like Say Anything as well as an 80s icon. John Cusack has played different roles throughout his career though, from the lovesick music store owner in High Fidelity to a wacky assassin in Grosse Point Blank. Oh, and don't forget the hero who saves his family from the end of the world in 2012. But where is he now, and why isn't he still racking it in at the box office?
Throughout the 80s and 90s, Cusack had a string of successful hit movies all ranging from dramas, comedies, thrillers, and action films, but for about the last decade, Cusack has starred in really obscure and virtually unknown films. Some would say that is a sign that no big movie agency wants to hire him anymore, and they might not be wrong in their judgments. Cusack has done some shady things recently.
In 2014, Cusack had some choice words to describe Hollywood today compared with how it was when he was starting out, in an interview with The Guardian. He said age is everything in Hollywood and the only thing that matters are franchises and superstars. "I got another 15, 20 years before they say I’m old," Cusack explained while comparing real-life Hollywood to his then-new film, Map to the Stars, which reflected these problems in the business. "For women it’s brutal. Bruce’s thing about if you’re 26, you’re menopausal? It’s only absurd because it’s a little bit further than the truth. I have actress friends who are being put out to pasture at 29. They just want to open up another can of hot 22. It’s becoming almost like kiddie porn. It’s f**king weird."
"People would look after you when I was a kid," he continued. "There were good people in the business. When I came to LA Rob Reiner said: 'Come stay at my house.' He taught me. I worked with Pacino. Pacino would talk to you and mentor you. Now it’s different. The culture just eats young actors up and spits them out. It’s a hard thing to survive without finding safe harbor."
Then, in a very disgruntled, and even blunt way, he concluded, "You can’t make it up. It’s a whorehouse and people go mad." Not sure if this is the best way to get roles, and we can sure doubt Cusack striking up a contract with Marvel or any other franchise.
In fact Cusack had vowed to never "put on the tights," as he puts it, ever in his career, and he theorizes that this decision is not getting him parts. He told The Guardian in 2012, "I'm still here, desperately groping in the dark. Increasingly, I feel it's about just trying to remain relevant enough to do good work. Sometimes I think I'm in control, but more and more I realize that it's just a complete farce. It's true, it used to be that if you did a big, big movie then you could leverage it and make some smaller, cooler ones, and I got away with that for a few years. But now, they just want you to put on tights – if you don't put on the tights, they just want to get rid of you. And I'm not putting on the tights, so you know..."
So his unwillingness to star in big-budget franchises isn't his thing. But when roles don't come knocking at your door as easily as they once did, it's a matter of wanting money, or risking your morals. It's a deep question, and one we're betting Cusack would answer with the refusal of the roles for his own self-perseverance. For someone who says, "Why wouldn’t you have contempt for the movie business? It sucks most of the time." We really can't blame Hollywood completely.
Cusack's political views are just another reason his fame has declined in recent years. He's more concerned with journalists' rights and freedom to share hard-journalism, and forming the Freedom of the Press Foundation. He writes political articles for the Huffington Post, according to Looper, and is passionate about his activism, especially through his Twitter, which is a good thing, he cares about freedom of speech. But while it's good he fights for the things he believes, he sometimes goes about it the wrong way, and he retweeted something very questionable that sparked backlash last year.
Cusack retweeted a cartoon picture of a hand with a Star of David pushing down on a group of people, which was captioned with, "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." The quote is based on writing from white nationalist and neo-Nazi Kevin Alfred Strom, according to USA Today. At first, despite justifying and explaining the tweet in other posts, Cusack blamed the retweet on a "bot".
"A bot got me," Cusack responded in the now-deleted tweet. "I thought I was endorsing a pro Palestinian justice retweet - of an earlier post - it came I think from a different source - Shouldn’t Have retweeted." He went on to explain, "A bot is an alt right account - same thing- not a person but an organized agenda," and in another tweet, "it's clear that even if it was Israel's flag & even if you don't have antisemitic bone in your body, it is still an antisemitic cartoon. Because it deploys anti-Jewish stereotypes in its attacks on Israel, even if those critiques about state violence are legit."
After many more apologies, Cusack kept digging his own grave, and it seems his outspokenness, and views sometimes come back to bite him in the bum. So his contempt for how Hollywood has changed, his unwillingness and possibly even superiority over starring in franchises, and his foot-in-mouth approach to politics and Twitter are all factors as to why you never see Cusack anymore. Maybe Cusack shouldn't say anything anymore, but that would mean going against his views on freedom of speech.