|
John Cusack
| Biography |
matters is big profits, they say, the Lowest Common Denominator is King. Yet very few do anything about it. Very few use the industry with intelligence, playing the tawdry game but using their money and influence to get classier projects off the ground. One who does is Tim Robbins, who'll accept a whacking pay packet to appear in trash like Mission To Mars, then spend time and money on pet projects like The Cradle Will Rock. Another such maverick is Robbins' close friend, John Cusack, action star of Con Air, but also the co-writer and star of indie hits High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank. Superstar AND artist - a difficult balancing act.
Considering his background, how could it have been any other way? Cusack was born on the 28th of June, 1966, in Evanston, a northern district of Chicago, right on Lake Michigan. His father, Richard, worked in advertising, then moved into documentary film-making (he'd win an Emmy) and acting (he appeared in his children's first movies, then later such blockbusters as The Fugitive and While You Were Sleeping). His mother, Nancy, gave up teaching maths to look after the children - in order, Ann, Joan, Bill, John and Susie.
Richard and Nancy moved to Chicago from New York in 1965. Oddly for Irish-Catholics, they believed in "a kind of Joseph Campbell theory of pursuing bliss. Whatever excites or makes you happy is what you should be doing". And what excited the Cusack kids was acting. When John was but 3, Ann (5 years his senior) would organise plays for the siblings to enact. She would be Cinderella, Joan would play the Ugly Stepsister, Bill was Prince Charming and John, well, strangely considering who turned out to be the international heart-throb, John was always the dog.
|
|
|
|
|
