Key Points
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John Cusack is setting the record straight on a rumor that he was offered the role of Bender in John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club.
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“I think there was one time at one point where, I think, [Hughes] thought he wanted me to do it, and I think I would have done it,” the High Fidelityactor admitted.
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Cusack appeared in Hughes’ 1984 film Sixteen Candles.
John Cusack almost served detention at Shermer High School.
The actor, known for his teenage heartthrob role as Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything, addressed the longstanding rumor that he was up for a major role in the John Hughes cinematic universe.
When his appearance in Sixteen Candlesas Bryce was brought up on the Happy Sad Confusedpodcast with Josh Horowitz, the host admitted, “I’m surprised you actually didn’t pop up in other things.”
“There’s conjecture that you were offered the [Judd Nelson] role in Breakfast Club,” Horowitz added, referring to “the criminal” John Bender role in the 1985 movie.
Cusack denied ever being offered the role, but revealed that there was “one time at one point where, I think, [Hughes] thought he wanted me to do it, and I think I would have done it.” Cusack called the Breakfast Clubscreenplay “a cool script,” but “it didn’t go that way.”
Around the same time that Breakfast Clubcame out, Cusack appeared in The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, The Journey of Natty Gan, and Stand By Me — all by the time he was 20.
Cusack also spoke about being a “teen idol,” a term that Horowitz quipped probably made him gag. “They say fame is something that you have to sort of deal with because you don’t really get prepared for it. Especially when you’re probably a teenager,” he began.
“But I was lucky because I think, maybe the way my parents were, or the people that I admired. You know, I hadn’t done anything. So I was never gonna buy my hype.”
The High Fidelitystar said he “wanted to work with great people and do great movies,” but knew he was still inexperienced as an actor. This, along with some words of wisdom from his father, also helped him stay focused on the craft.
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“I think my father was always like, he just said, ‘To be a celebrity is death for an artist.’ He was always about, like, what’s the script, what’s the part, what’s this thing saying, right? And so, he wasn’t impressed by any of that. So, I think that rubbed off on me.”
Cusack previously spoke about moving away from his film career during San Diego Comic Con in July while promoting his graphic novel, Momo, which he worked on with artist Ignacio Noé and is out today.
“Nobody edited anything I wrote or that he drew. So it’s really a piece of work that was just done by two people,” Cusack said. “It was just me and Ignacio’s story, and that doesn’t happen today.”
“I didn’t want to negotiate telling a story really,” he added, referring to negotiations that can surround making a movie.
“When you ask somebody to put like $20 to $30 million into a bank account [for a film budget], they want to have an opinion, and they’re afraid and all that stuff.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
