:People: Just think of it as bringing up Daddy
After years of playing teenagers, bachelors and guys trying to get the girl, John Cusack is tackling fatherhood – onscreen, anyway.
“It signifies I’m getting older,” laughs Cusack, 41, himself still childless.
He stars in “Martian Child” as a science fiction writer who adopts a shy, eccentric boy.
Next month comes “Grace is Gone,” a more serious Sundance Film Festival hit in which he plays a former soldier who delays telling his daughters that their soldier-mother has died in Iraq by taking them on a road trip.
That duality of roles is typical of Cusack, who tends to alternate between studio pictures (1997’s “Con Air,” 2001’s “America’s Sweethearts,” 2005’s “Must Love Dogs”) and more offbeat indie fare (1999’s “Being John Malkovich,” 2002’s “Max”).
“I keep trying to explore stuff that I like and balance the business with personal passions,” Cusack explains.
“I’m interested in doing stuff that people I admire do, which is try to explore being human and admit that you’re human,” he adds. “At least admit it in film, if you can’t do it everyday in life.”
Writer Chuck Klosterman once labeled Cusack the “neo-Elvis,” claiming a generation of women will forever be in love with him.
But while “Martian Child” recalls that side of him, “Grace is Gone” reveals a new dimension.
Writer-director Jim Strouse wrote the part with Cusack specifically in mind.
“I just thought it would be interesting to see him say very little – kind of the opposite of everything he’s known for and so good at,” Strouse says.
Adds producer Harvey Weinstein: “I truly believe he has a breakout performance in ‘Grace is Gone,’ and I hope that he will be recognized this awards season.”
Asked about a possible Oscar nomination (which would be his first), Cusack says: “It’s good for the movie and would be great for me. It’s kind of like the prom, right? You wouldn’t want to admit that you want to go, but you probably secretly want to be asked.”
Though Cusack is an ardent critic of the war in Iraq and the Bush administration (he’s blogged about both on the Huffington Post), he plays a patriotic ex-soldier in “Grace is Gone.” Any anti-war message is purely related to the pain war causes families.
“Film isn’t just a megaphone for your opinions,” he says. “You’re trying to explore something that transcends you a little bit, hopefully.”
In his “Biographical Dictionary of Film,” critic David Thomson wondered of the ever-youthful Cusack: “So when is he going to be emphatically grown-up?”
Cusack may have answered that question.
The birthday bunch
Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite is 91. Actress Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is 77. Actress Loretta Swit (“M*A*S*H”) is 70. Singer Delbert McClinton is 67. Actress Markie Post is 57. Actress Kathy Griffin is 47. Actor Ralph Macchio is 46. “Survivor” host Jeff Probst is 46. Actor Matthew McConaughey is 38. Rapper-producer Sean “Diddy” Combs is 38. Actress Heather Tom is 32.