John Cusack has spent the last couple of weeks promoting his latest project, The Raven,in New York and L.A.
In the movie he plays a fictionalized version of Edgar Allen Poe who teams with a Baltimore detective after a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by his stories.
Among Cusack’s stops was an appearance at the New York Times’ Times Talk, which was moderated by David Itzkoff. One of our contributors, Denise, attended the event, and sent us this report:
Itzkoff started off asking John what the secret to his longevity was and joked that he’d been performing since he “was a zygote”. John added, “keep trying to get in trouble and find a way home, get lucky, work with good people and be authentic.”
David asked him about being hands on and producing a lot of his stuff and working on screenplays, John said he does all this to help create a successful environment and to keep fear off the set.
David brought up Hot Tub Time Machine and John commented that it’s his “finest hour.”
David said the 80’s were like a “coming of Cusask” and John said he wanted to do Hot Tub because it was a funny absurd idea and he would rather take shots at himself, instead of other people doing it.
David asked about what John did differently to avoid the pitfalls of fame. He said he doesn’t believe in the celebrity culture, has had good luck along the way and “avoids overexposure because it creates less of a mystery on screen”. He said it’s nice to leave and be wanted back, instead of being in everyone’s face all the time. Then John said he tweets so he’s probably losing it.
David asked about living in Chicago as opposed to L.A. John said they don’t really make movies in L.A. anymore, it’s mainly done in Eastern Europe (which is where he filmed The Raven) or Canada. You have to take meetings in L.A., but you don’t have to stay there.
David then set the scene for his next question by saying “So you’re driving along and all of a sudden In Your Eyes comes on the radio, what do you do?” John said he would laugh and turn the station. John mentioned how he ran into Peter Gabriel and Peter said that they are linked together forever because of that song. John laughed and said, “I hope that’s okay”.
David then asked John about his most important roles that established him as an adult actor. John said working with John Sayles on Eight Men Out was a highlight, as was working with Studs Terkel and then Steven Frears on The Grifters. He also talked about Woody Allen and how he is similar to Clint Eastwood in that they are both very musical people and don’t force the issue. Woody listened more to the rhythm of the dialogue as opposed to watching it being delivered.
Next they talked about Being John Malkovich, John said it came about after he went to his agency and requested the “most unproduceable stuff to do next” and in asking for that he found the secret vault of Charlie Kaufman’s scripts. He had to convince Spike Jonze that he could play a weird person.
They talked about High Fidelity and John mentioned that he saw it as the “perfect male confessional.” He said it was a relatively easy transition from being set in England (in the book) to setting it in U.S. John said he loved always referencing The Clash because they represent rebellion as being a good thing, but you have to think.
John then talked about how he does the “one for them, one for us” theory of making movies, which a lot of actors seem to prefer to do. He will make a big budget Hollywood type film and then from that get the financing for a smaller independent film that is more personal to him. He called it “doing that dance.” He said movies today are either very big or very small and there is not much middle any more.
Next John talked about working with his sister, Joan. He said you know your scenes with her will be hilarious and he joked that he can get her for cheap and she’ll return his calls. He said he likes to work with her because he just enjoys hanging out with her. John said there was never any tension between them, being in the same industry, and Joan did films first and he just followed her into it.
John said he started a theatre company at age 19 in Chicago because he loved that sense of community with the theatre and said it was “tribal.” He enjoys working with the same repertoire and his friends. He said he would consider doing a play if it’s something he really wants like Philip Seymour Hoffman doing Death of a Salesman.
John next talked about War Inc. He said he wanted to make an anti-war movie at the height of the Bush presidency. He called the film “incendiary vaudeville.” David then talked about his political overtones possibly affecting his work: John said it doesn’t mark him and it’s just scare tactics. He doesn’t think it would stop people from seeing his movies and he won’t kowtow to others.
John then talked about his latest film The Raven. He said he didn’t want to do a straight Poe bio pic. Instead he wanted to get into Poe’s imagination. Poe gets caught up in his own stories which he has to deconstruct. He said it’s “meta Poe.” John said it’s fun to do an action/physical work, just not in a bad movie. He said it’s hard to do “smart action.”
John then talked about his future work He’s working on an untitled film in South America, he finished The Paperboy about a newspaper family and a woman trying to get an inmate off death row (John plays the inmate), and he will be playing Nixon in an upcoming film spanning 5 administrations.
John talked about using social media, saying he likes exploring it and tends to use “chaos theory” in that he doesn’t know the rules and doesn’t care. He likes having no filters in reaching people with the same interests. He said it’s not frightening being unfiltered, it’s interesting and can open new doors by sharing info you’re interested in.
John said he doesn’t like to watch his work, he sees it as “fever dreams” and prefers not to watch himself on screen.
An audience member asked what would be the most challenging role you could play? John said Shakespeare.
Someone else asked who he would like to work with? He said Denzel Washington and David Fincher.
Denise also attended an Apple In Store appearance with John a couple of weeks ago where she took the photos below:
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