John Cusack talks Maps to the Stars and Hollywood's abuse of young actors

John Cusack talks Maps to the Stars and Hollywood’s abuse of young actors

September 26th 2014, 12:55pm

David Cronenberg‘s scathing take on Hollywood may not have a wide release yet, but MAPS TO THE STARS is still garnering some attention for its portrayal of LA archetypes. John Cusack recently spoke out to The Guardian regarding the film’s plot and its characters, and it seems that the film may be less satire than you might think.

Here’s what Cusack had to say about careers in LA:

It just seems to be ripe with all these frontier crazies. People are looking to turn their pain into beautiful art, but they also want to be famous. And there’s so much money – so of course all the predators come in. I got another 15, 20 years before they say I’m old. For women it’s brutal. Bruce’s thing about if you’re 26, you’re menopausal? It’s only absurd because it’s a little bit further than the truth. I have actress friends who are being put out to pasture at 29. They just want to open up another can of hot 22. It’s becoming almost like kiddie porn. It’s f*cking weird.

How the business has changed over the years:

People would look after you when I was a kid. There were good people in the business. When I came to LA Rob Reiner said: ‘Come stay at my house.’ He taught me. I worked with Pacino. Pacino would talk to you and mentor you. Now it’s different. The culture just eats young actors up and spits them out. It’s a hard thing to survive without finding safe harbor.

My friend Joe Roth ran Disney. He made things like THE ROCK and CON AIR to make shareholders happy, but then he also gave six or seven slots to people he liked. I got to make HIGH FIDELITY and GROSSE POINT BLANK. Spike Lee got to make SUMMER OF SAM. Wes Anderson got to make RUSHMORE. I had that memory of film and that’s gone.

While there is no doubt dozens of truths (not so) buried within MAPS TO THE STARS, the trick is making the flick entertaining to boot. According to Chris Bumbray’s review, you could do a lot worse. I’m definitely interested in checking out Cronenberg’s latest, if only for the performances.

MAPS TO THE STARS will hit the New York Film Festival on September 27th, with hopefully a wider release later this year.