The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Will he (cough) say anything? John Cusack will be in Akron for ‘High Fidelity’ screening, Q&A
When making a list of John Cusack’s top five movies, “Say Anything,” “Bullets Over Broadway,” “Grosse Pointe Blank,” “Being John Malkovich” and “High Fidelity” come to mind.
It’s the latter — detailing record shop owner Rob Gordon’s search for love with his buddies Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black) — that Cusack will be screening with a Q&A to follow Feb. 16 at the Akron Civic Theatre.
The News-Herald talked to Cusack about his upcoming Rubber City visit during a recent phone call to his Chicago home.
QSo the last time we saw John Cusack in Northeast Ohio he was attending Game Seven of the 2016 World Series. That obviously worked out for you.
AYeah, but I always say hat’s off to Cleveland. I became a Cleveland fan there. Everybody I would see at those games, they’d look at you and say, “Good luck, man.” They were very low-key, and I get it. I get why people like Cleveland. The fans were very classy. They just gave you the nod sort of like, “I know. It’s 100 years for you, nearly 70 years for us.” But I definitely became a Cleveland fan after that series. I definitely want them to win the World Series.
QNow we’re getting you back in the area for a screening of “High Fidelity” with a Q&A afterwards. Why do you enjoy these fan interactions?
AThe company is just choosing movies that people want to see. I’m not sort of in on that part, but I’ve done Q&As forever. People seem to be having a good time, getting rowdy, asking crazy questions and just having fun. It’s nice to see the movies playing in packed houses and people interacting with the movie. So it’s nice to hear the place rocking. I don’t usually look back too much, so it’s nice for me to look back with other people. It’s nice that they still like the movies and feel such warmth towards the movies. It’s very flattering.
QRegarding “High Fidelity,” what was it about the 2000 movie that you feel struck a chord with audiences?
AI think it’s a love letter to music — really good music — and kind of an era of music that is kind of gone with, I guess, technology. Before, going to the record store and waiting for the release of the record and hearing it, that was all a big part of musical exploration and stuff. And the fact that certain songs mean certain things to you and they’re sort of autobiographical markers of your life, I think a lot of people experience that. It’s
“I’ve done Q&As forever. People seem to be having a good time, getting rowdy, asking crazy questions and just having fun.” — John Cusack
also a movie about men and men’s insecurities and how crazy we are. So it’s a comedy about men that’s slightly timeless in some ways.
QWhat kind of challenges do you remember thinking back to the film shoot?
AThere were a couple of internal challenges on the shoot, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We had such great support from the studio, and it was really a different era of studio filmmaking, for sure. I really wanted to get as much of the book in as we could, be as true to the book as we could. When we decided to break the fourth wall, then it really allowed you to sort of get the best bits of the book in a very direct way. So we felt like we got it right.
QHow cool is it that a reboot is in the works from Disney’s upcoming streaming service featuring Zoe Kravitz, daughter of “High Fidelity” actress Lisa Bonet, in the lead role?
AThe idea of making it from a female point of view is cool, and then I thought having Lisa’s daughter do it was kind of a nice circle.
QBack to the upcoming screening and Q&A, what can people expect?
AIf somebody is doing an interview, they might look at the Wikipedia page and say, “OK, you started when you were young and did this and that.” People in the audience don’t want to talk about that. Instead, they’ll say, “I want to talk about why you chose two Velvet Underground songs and only one song from this guy? I want to know about how this was cast and whether this scene was improvised.” So they just get to say what they want or they get to talk about anything. I like the random nature of the questions. Like you can have really crazy, really silly, really stupid, very thoughtful and very insightful, ridiculous questions one after another. I like the range that comes from a non-planned Q&A.
QFinally, you’re known to be quite active on Twitter, speaking out about politics and President Donald Trump. Do the Q&A sessions ever delve into weird interactions or conversations with audiences?
AWell, it doesn’t seem weird to me because at the moment we can still actually say what we want. No, I’m happy to either take that head-on or avoid it if people don’t want to talk about it. I can understand if people just want to have a fun night out and not think about that stuff. I’m sure that if we were screening “Grosse Pointe Blank,” which is, like, a black comedy that has political satire, it would wrap around back to politics of today or things like that. But maybe with “High Fidelity” it won’t, you never know. I’m certainly happy to do it. Either way, I’m happy to talk about whatever people want.