Get your own Free Home PageJohn Paul Cusack was born on June, 28, 1966 in an Irish-Catholic family in Evanston Il, his dad, Dick Cusack a screenwriter, who's an Emmy winning documantary film-maker. His mother Nancy, a math teacher. John has 4 other brother and sisters, Ann, Joan, Susan, and Bill, all tied into show business one way or another.
John was sent to catholic school after his parents felt that he needed some disciplin because they were asked to visit his school too often, and thought a catholic school would do him some good. But it didn't really work as well as they anticipated. John and his friends would stay up till 6 am calling radio stations on school nights.
John started acting at a very young age. Him, his sisters Ann and Joan would often put on garage plays to entertain neighbours. John was asked to play the dog very often. John started going to The Piven Theater Workshop at 8 years old. At 14 did several commercials. John wasn't the first in his family who wanted to act, a lot of it has to do with influence from his sisters Ann and Joan.
" In high school, I was either painfully shy or painfully proactive. And I didn't get a call back for Hamlet, which was funny because there're, like, 90 roles in the play. There weren't that many good actors and I had worked professionally. And I still didn't get callback. I couldn't even get a guard part. And I didn't even aim that high. I tried out for Horatio, you know? And nothing. I was blackballed. I was on a hit list or something."-John talking about his Hi-school acting days. After John started acting in movies "I got all the girls who would never look at me before" John says, amused.
John was cocky for a 16 year old, he went to his first agent and said "put me up for any audition and I'll get the part". That was the beginning of his film carrer. He's also writen and directed several plays at local theatres, and they have earned him local awards. John even started a production company called New Crime Productions with some of his friends back home.
John took a 2 year break from the movies after Bullets Over Broadway. "I just didn't work for a while. I was tired of it. When you work on films, you don't get to do a lot. Like travel and explore some other stuff. I wanted to walk away. I think it makes you seem more attractive to people who want to hire you, sickly enough." But now " 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, 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."
So Which is the real John? " Lloyd Dobler was simply the best part of who I could ever be, you know how in The Grifters, my character, the con man Roy Dillon, had such a dark heart? I'd have to say I'm right smack in the middle of Lloyd and Roy." John is fidgety in person, he would bite his cuticles, rock back and forth in his chair, and rub his eyes with closed fists. John likes to watch. He would pick out details, guessing at motives, and is not afraid to stare.John's sister Joan says "He's a family-oriented guy". John's friend Jeremy Piven says" I think the one thing Johnny is afraid of is mediocrity, of failure, of not being the best he can possibly be."
John has an impressive list of movies, and has worked with a lot of great directors, including Woody Allen (Annie Hall) in Shadows and Fog, Bullets Over Broadway, Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally) in The Sure Thing, John Frears in The Grifters, John Sayles (Long Star) in Eight Men Out Alan Parker (Evita) for The Road to Welville and Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire)in Say Anything. John has grown up throughout the years, much like the roles he's portrayed.
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